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Number theory Difficulty 8.7 Shortlist Prove it IMO

Let SS be an infinite set of positive integers, such that there exist four pairwise distinct a,b,c,dSa, b, c, d \in S with gcd(a,b)gcd(c,d)\operatorname{gcd}(a, b) \neq \operatorname{gcd}(c, d). Prove that there exist three pairwise distinct x,y,zSx, y, z \in S such that gcd(x,y)=gcd(y,z)gcd(z,x)\operatorname{gcd}(x, y)=\operatorname{gcd}(y, z) \neq \operatorname{gcd}(z, x).

Solution

There exists αS\alpha \in S so that {gcd(α,s)sS,sα}\{\operatorname{gcd}(\alpha, s) \mid s \in S, s \neq \alpha\} contains at least two elements. Since α\alpha has only finitely many divisors, there is a dαd \mid \alpha such that the set B={βSgcd(α,β)=d}B=\{\beta \in S \mid \operatorname{gcd}(\alpha, \beta)=d\} is infinite. Pick γS\gamma \in S so that gcd(α,γ)d\operatorname{gcd}(\alpha, \gamma) \neq d. Pick β1,β2B\beta_{1}, \beta_{2} \in B so that gcd(β1,γ)=gcd(β2,γ)=:d\operatorname{gcd}\left(\beta_{1}, \gamma\right)=\operatorname{gcd}\left(\beta_{2}, \gamma\right)=: d'. If d=dd=d', then gcd(α,β1)=gcd(γ,β1)gcd(α,γ)\operatorname{gcd}\left(\alpha, \beta_{1}\right)=\operatorname{gcd}\left(\gamma, \beta_{1}\right) \neq \operatorname{gcd}(\alpha, \gamma). If ddd \neq d', then either gcd(α,β1)=gcd(α,β2)=d\operatorname{gcd}\left(\alpha, \beta_{1}\right)=\operatorname{gcd}\left(\alpha, \beta_{2}\right)=d and gcd(β1,β2)d\operatorname{gcd}\left(\beta_{1}, \beta_{2}\right) \neq d or gcd(γ,β1)=gcd(γ,β2)=d\operatorname{gcd}\left(\gamma, \beta_{1}\right)=\operatorname{gcd}\left(\gamma, \beta_{2}\right)=d' and gcd(β1,β2)d\operatorname{gcd}\left(\beta_{1}, \beta_{2}\right) \neq d'.

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