Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2022

Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Japan

How many pairs of integers (m,n)(m, n) are there with 1m,n20221 \le m, n \le 2022 satisfying the following condition?
For any positive integer NN, there exists a nonnegative integer kk and an integer d>Nd > N such that both mk2d\frac{m-k^2}{d} and n+2kd\frac{n+2k}{d} are integers.

Solution

If a positive integer dd divides both mk2m-k^2 and n+2kn+2k, dd also divides 4(mk2)(n2k)(n+2k)=4mn24(m-k^2)-(n-2k)(n+2k) = 4m-n^2. Thus when 4mn24m \neq n^2 holds, N=4mn2N = |4m-n^2| satisfies dNd \le N for any positive integer dd and (m,n)(m,n) does not satisfy the condition.
On the other hand, when 4m=n24m = n^2 holds, n=2tn = 2t for a positive integer tt since nn is even. Then we have m=n24=t2m = \frac{n^2}{4} = t^2. Let k=Nk = N and d=t+Nd = t + N, then d>Nd > N holds and
mk2d=t2N2t+N=tN,n+2kd=2t+2Nt+N=2 \frac{m-k^2}{d} = \frac{t^2-N^2}{t+N} = t-N, \quad \frac{n+2k}{d} = \frac{2t+2N}{t+N} = 2
are both integers. Hence (m,n)(m,n) satisfies the condition.
From the above, it follows that pairs (m,n)(m,n) satisfying the condition are the pairs which can be written as (t2,2t)(t^2, 2t) with a positive integer tt and 1t2,2t20221 \le t^2, 2t \le 2022. 1t220221 \le t^2 \le 2022 shows 1t441 \le t \le 44, and then both t2t^2 and 2t2t are integers between 1 and 2022. Hence the answer is 44.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.