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Taiwan IMO Selection Camp, 2023

Algebra Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Taiwan

Find all positive integers aa, bb and cc such that abab is a square, and
a+b+c−3abc3=1. a + b + c - 3\sqrt[3]{abc} = 1.

Solution

We first rule out the possibility that a=ba = b. Note that if a=ba = b, then for every prime p∣ap \mid a, since p∣abp \mid ab and abab is a perfect square, we have p2∣abp^2 \mid ab, which implies p∣a+b−3abc3p \mid a+b-3\sqrt[3]{abc}. This means p∤cp \nmid c, and hence gcd⁡(a,c)=1\gcd(a, c) = 1. Moreover, since abc3\sqrt[3]{abc} is an integer, there must exist m,n∈Nm, n \in \mathbb{N} such that (a,b,c)=(m3,m3,n3)(a, b, c) = (m^3, m^3, n^3), so that
a+b+c−3abc3=2m3+n3−3m2n=(m−n)2(2m+n)=1, a + b + c - 3\sqrt[3]{abc} = 2m^3 + n^3 - 3m^2n = (m - n)^2(2m + n) = 1,
which clearly has no solution, so a≠ba \neq b.

Next, without loss of generality assume a>ba > b. By the AM-GM inequality, we have
1=a+b+c−3abc3=(a−b)2+(ab+ab+c−3ababc3)≥(a−b)2>0, \begin{aligned} 1 &= a + b + c - 3\sqrt[3]{abc} \\ &= (\sqrt{a} - \sqrt{b})^2 + \left(\sqrt{ab} + \sqrt{ab} + c - 3\sqrt[3]{\sqrt{ab}\sqrt{abc}}\right) \\ &\ge (\sqrt{a} - \sqrt{b})^2 > 0, \end{aligned}
hence a−b=1\sqrt{a} - \sqrt{b} = 1. Moreover, since abab is a perfect square, aa and bb are both perfect squares1^1, so there exists n∈Nn \in \mathbb{N} such that a=(n+1)2a = (n+1)^2 and b=n2b = n^2. Also, since equality must hold in the AM-GM inequality above, we have c=ab=n(n+1)c = \sqrt{ab} = n(n+1). Substituting the above solution back confirms that it holds. This completes the proof.

1^1For instance, via the identity a=(a−b+1)/2\sqrt{a} = (a - b + 1)/2

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