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Brazilian Mathematical Olympiad

Number theory Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it Brazil

Find the smallest positive prime that divides n2+5n+23n^2 + 5n + 23 for some integer nn.

Solution

Let f(n)=n2+5n+23f(n) = n^2 + 5n + 23. For n=−8,−7,−6,−5,−4,−3,−2,−1,0,1,2,3,4n = -8, -7, -6, -5, -4, -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 we get f(n)=47,37,29,23,19,17,17,19,23,29,37,47,59f(n) = 47, 37, 29, 23, 19, 17, 17, 19, 23, 29, 37, 47, 59. Observe that f(−n−5)=f(n)f(-n-5) = f(n), so this only involves calculating 7 terms. None of these are divisible by any of 2,3,5,7,11,132, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13. But all possible values mod 1313 are assumed by f(n)f(n) for any 13 consecutive integers, similarly for 11, 7 etc. So f(n)f(n) is not divisible by 2,3,5,7,11,132, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13 for any nn. On the other hand f(−2)=17f(-2) = 17. So the answer is 1717.

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