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Annual Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament

Number theory Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Prove that for every integer nn greater than 11,
σ(n)ϕ(n)≤n2−1 \sigma(n) \phi(n) \leq n^{2}-1
When does equality hold?

Solution

Solution:
Note that
σ(mn)ϕ(mn)=σ(m)ϕ(m)σ(n)ϕ(n)≤(m2−1)(n2−1)=(mn)2−(m2+n2−1)<(mn)2−1 \sigma(m n) \phi(m n) = \sigma(m) \phi(m) \sigma(n) \phi(n) \leq (m^{2}-1)(n^{2}-1) = (m n)^{2} - (m^{2} + n^{2} - 1) < (m n)^{2} - 1
for any pair of relatively prime positive integers (m,n)(m, n) other than (1,1)(1,1). Now, for pp a prime and kk a positive integer, σ(pk)=1+p+⋯+pk=pk+1−1p−1\sigma\left(p^{k}\right) = 1 + p + \cdots + p^{k} = \frac{p^{k+1}-1}{p-1} and ϕ(pk)=pk−1p⋅pk=(p−1)pk−1\phi\left(p^{k}\right) = p^{k} - \frac{1}{p} \cdot p^{k} = (p-1) p^{k-1}. Thus,
σ(pk)ϕ(pk)=pk+1−1p−1⋅(p−1)pk−1=(pk+1−1)pk−1=p2k−pk−1≤p2k−1 \sigma\left(p^{k}\right) \phi\left(p^{k}\right) = \frac{p^{k+1}-1}{p-1} \cdot (p-1) p^{k-1} = (p^{k+1}-1) p^{k-1} = p^{2k} - p^{k-1} \leq p^{2k} - 1
with equality where k=1k=1. It follows that equality holds in the given inequality if and only if nn is prime.

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