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Combinatorics Difficulty 8.6 Shortlist Prove it Germany

Let ε>0\varepsilon>0 be given. Show that there exist integers a,ba, b and cc, not all 0, such that the inequality a2+b3+c5<ε|a \sqrt{2}+b \sqrt{3}+c \sqrt{5}|<\varepsilon is satisfied.

Prove furthermore that in every triple (a,b,c)(0,0,0)(a, b, c) \neq(0,0,0) of integers for which this inequality holds, at least one of the absolute values a,b,c|a|,|b|,|c| is greater than ε1/3/30\varepsilon^{-1 / 3} / \sqrt{30}.

Solution

Solution:

In the first proof of the first part, we denote for a real number xx let [x][x] be the largest integer not greater than xx (floor function), the number x:=x[x][0,1)\langle x\rangle:=x-[x] \in[0,1) is called the fractional part of xx.
We choose an integer n>2ε1n>\sqrt{2} \varepsilon^{-1}. By the pigeonhole principle there exist distinct indices i,j{0,1,,n}i, j \in\{0,1, \ldots, n\} such that i6\langle i \sqrt{6}\rangle and j6\langle j \sqrt{6}\rangle lie in the same one of the nn intervals
[0,1n),[1n,2n),,[n1n,1) \left[0, \frac{1}{n}\right),\left[\frac{1}{n}, \frac{2}{n}\right), \ldots,\left[\frac{n-1}{n}, 1\right)
Then there exists an integer aa such that a(i6j6)<1/n|a-(i \sqrt{6}-j \sqrt{6})|<1 / n holds. From this, by multiplying by 2\sqrt{2}, it follows for b:=2(ji)b:=2(j-i) that the inequality a2+b3<2/n<ε|a \sqrt{2}+b \sqrt{3}|<\sqrt{2} / n<\varepsilon holds, which with c=0c=0 leads to the inequality in the problem statement.

The second proof gets by without the pigeonhole principle: Since 0<62<10<\sqrt{6}-2<1, we find a positive integer kk such that X=(62)k(0,ε/3)X=(\sqrt{6}-2)^{k} \in(0, \varepsilon / \sqrt{3}). Evidently there exist integers a0,b0a_{0}, b_{0}, different from 0, such that X=a06+b0X=a_{0} \sqrt{6}+b_{0}. We now set a=3a0,b=b0,c=0a=3 a_{0}, b=b_{0}, c=0, then we have a2+b3+c5=3(a032+b0)=3X<ε|a \sqrt{2}+b \sqrt{3}+c \sqrt{5}|=\left|\sqrt{3}\left(a_{0} \sqrt{3} \sqrt{2}+b_{0}\right)\right|=\sqrt{3} X<\varepsilon.

For the (more difficult) second part of the problem, we assume that a,ba, b and cc satisfy the inequality. We first compute that the following expression is an integer.
Z:=(a2+b3+c5)(a2b3c5)(a2+b3c5)(a2b3+c5)=(2a2(3b2+215bc+5c2))(2a2(3b2215bc+5c2))=(2a23b25c2)260b2c2 \begin{aligned} Z & :=(a \sqrt{2}+b \sqrt{3}+c \sqrt{5})(a \sqrt{2}-b \sqrt{3}-c \sqrt{5})(a \sqrt{2}+b \sqrt{3}-c \sqrt{5})(a \sqrt{2}-b \sqrt{3}+c \sqrt{5}) \\ & =\left(2 a^{2}-\left(3 b^{2}+2 \sqrt{15} b c+5 c^{2}\right)\right)\left(2 a^{2}-\left(3 b^{2}-2 \sqrt{15} b c+5 c^{2}\right)\right) \\ & =\left(2 a^{2}-3 b^{2}-5 c^{2}\right)^{2}-60 b^{2} c^{2} \end{aligned}
This number is different from 0, for otherwise 60 would be the square of a rational number, which, however, due to the unique prime factorization of positive integers, is not the case. Thus Z1|Z| \geq 1 holds. On the other hand, Z|Z| can be estimated from above as follows
Z<a2+b3+c5(a2+b3+c5)3<ε((2+3+5)12(a2+b2+c2)12)3<(ε1/3103max(a,b,c))3 \begin{aligned} |Z| & <|a \sqrt{2}+b \sqrt{3}+c \sqrt{5}| \cdot(|a| \sqrt{2}+|b| \sqrt{3}+|c| \sqrt{5})^{3} \\ & <\varepsilon\left((2+3+5)^{\frac{1}{2}} \cdot\left(a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}\right)^{\frac{1}{2}}\right)^{3} \\ & <\left(\varepsilon^{1 / 3} \sqrt{10} \cdot \sqrt{3} \cdot \max (|a|,|b|,|c|)\right)^{3} \end{aligned}
where in the second step we used the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality. After rearranging, the claim follows.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from de; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.