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Saudi Arabian Mathematical Competitions

Number theory Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all pairs (m,nm, n) of integers, m,n≥2m, n \geq 2 such that mn−1m n - 1 divides n3−1n^{3} - 1.

Solution

The solutions are (k,k2)\left(k, k^{2}\right) and (k2,k)\left(k^{2}, k\right), with k≥2k \geq 2.
We have mn−1∣(n3−1)m−n2(mn−1)=n2−mm n - 1 \mid \left(n^{3} - 1\right) m - n^{2}(m n - 1) = n^{2} - m, hence
mn−1∣m(n2−m)−(mn−1)n=n−m2 m n - 1 \mid m\left(n^{2} - m\right) - (m n - 1) n = n - m^{2}
If n>m2n > m^{2}, then mn−1≤n−m2≤n−1m n - 1 \leq n - m^{2} \leq n - 1, so mn≤nm n \leq n, not possible.
If n=m2n = m^{2}, then obviously m3−1∣m6−1m^{3} - 1 \mid m^{6} - 1, so all pairs (m,m2m, m^{2}), m≥2m \geq 2 are solutions.
If n<m2n < m^{2}, from mn−1≤n3−1m n - 1 \leq n^{3} - 1 we obtain that n<m≤n2\sqrt{n} < m \leq n^{2}. Then mn−1≤m2−n<m2−1m n - 1 \leq m^{2} - n < m^{2} - 1, hence n<mn < m. If n2−m>0n^{2} - m > 0, we get mn−1≤n2−m<n2−1m n - 1 \leq n^{2} - m < n^{2} - 1, so m<nm < n, a contradiction. It follows n=m2n = m^{2}, satisfying the condition in the problem since m3−1∣m3−1m^{3} - 1 \mid m^{3} - 1, so all pairs (n2,n),n≥2\left(n^{2}, n\right), n \geq 2, are also solutions.

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