Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it Austria

Determine the smallest possible positive integer nn with the following property: For all positive integers xx, yy and zz with xy3x \mid y^3 and yz3y \mid z^3 and zx3z \mid x^3 we also have xyz(x+y+z)nxyz \mid (x+y+z)^n.
(Gerhard J. Woeginger)

Solution

Answer. The smallest possible integer with that property is n=13n = 13.

We note that we have xyz(x+y+z)nxyz \mid (x+y+z)^n if and only if for each prime pp the inequality vp(xyz)vp((x+y+z)n)v_p(xyz) \le v_p((x+y+z)^n) holds, where as usual vp(m)v_p(m) denotes the exponent of pp in the prime factorization of mm.
Let xx, yy and zz be positive integers with xy3x \mid y^3, yz3y \mid z^3 and zx3z \mid x^3. Let pp be an arbitrary prime, and w.l.o.g. let the multiplicity of pp be lowest in zz, that is, vp(z)=min{vp(x),vp(y),vp(z)}v_p(z) = \min\{v_p(x), v_p(y), v_p(z)\}.
Then we have vp(x+y+z)vp(z)v_p(x + y + z) \ge v_p(z), and from the divisibility constraints we get vp(x)3vp(y)9vp(z)v_p(x) \le 3v_p(y) \le 9v_p(z). It follows that
vp(xyz)=vp(x)+vp(y)+vp(z)9vp(z)+3vp(z)+vp(z)=13vp(z)13vp(x+y+z)=vp((x+y+z)13), \begin{aligned} v_p(xyz) &= v_p(x) + v_p(y) + v_p(z) \\ &\le 9v_p(z) + 3v_p(z) + v_p(z) = 13v_p(z) \\ &\le 13v_p(x + y + z) = v_p((x + y + z)^{13}), \end{aligned}
which proves that for n=13n = 13 the desired property is satisfied.
It remains to show that this is indeed the smallest possible integer with this property. For doing so, let nn now be a number that has the desired property. By setting (x,y,z)=(p9,p3,p1)(x, y, z) = (p^9, p^3, p^1) with an arbitrary prime pp (in order to achieve that both inequalities in the previous calculation become equalities), we get
13=vp(p13)=vp(p9p3p1)=vp(xyz)vp((x+y+z)n)=vp((p9+p3+p1)n)=nvp(p(p8+p2+1))=n, \begin{aligned} 13 &= v_p(p^{13}) = v_p(p^9 \cdot p^3 \cdot p^1) = v_p(xyz) \\ &\le v_p((x + y + z)^n) = v_p((p^9 + p^3 + p^1)^n) = n \cdot v_p(p(p^8 + p^2 + 1)) = n, \end{aligned}
which yields n13n \ge 13.

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