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Number theory Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Show that there are infinitely many positive integers nn such that nn has at least two prime divisors and 20n+16n20^{n}+16^{n} is divisible by n2n^{2}.

Solution

We will construct (by induction on kk) the infinite increasing sequence (nk)k1\left(n_{k}\right)_{k \geq 1} of odd positive integers such that any nkn_{k} satisfies 4nk+5nk4^{n_{k}}+5^{n_{k}} is divisible by nk2n_{k}^{2}.

We take n1=1n_{1}=1 and n2=3n_{2}=3.

Assume we already have nkn_{k}, that is 4nk+5nk=ank24^{n_{k}}+5^{n_{k}}=a n_{k}^{2} for some positive integer aa which must be odd, and greater than 1 (since nkn2=3n_{k} \geqslant n_{2}=3, it follows that 4nk+5nk>nk24^{n_{k}}+5^{n_{k}}>n_{k}^{2}).

Take pp an odd prime divisor of aa. Substitute 4nk4^{n_{k}} by xx and 5nk5^{n_{k}} by yy. Then, obviously
xp+yp=(x+y)(xp1yxp2+yp2x+yp1) x^{p}+y^{p}=(x+y)\left(x^{p-1}-y x^{p-2}+\cdots-y^{p-2} x+y^{p-1}\right)
is divisible by pnk2p n_{k}^{2}. Furthermore, it is clear that
xp1,yxp2,,yp2x,yp1 x^{p-1},-y x^{p-2}, \ldots,-y^{p-2} x, y^{p-1}
are congruent to each other modulo pp, and the number of them is pp.

So, xp1yxp2+yp2x+yp1x^{p-1}-y x^{p-2}+\cdots-y^{p-2} x+y^{p-1} must be divisible by pp. It follows that xp+ypx^{p}+y^{p} is divisible by (pnk)2\left(p n_{k}\right)^{2}.

Now we take nk+1=pnkn_{k+1}=p n_{k}. As p>1,nk+1>nkp>1, n_{k+1}>n_{k}, and 4nk+1+5nk+14^{n_{k+1}}+5^{n_{k+1}} is divisible by nk+12n_{k+1}^{2}.

Finally, it is clear that the number n=2nkn=2 n_{k} satisfies n220n+16nn^{2} \mid 20^{n}+16^{n} for any positive integer kk, which completes the solution.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.