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Number theory Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all pairs (m,nm, n) of integers, m,n2m, n \geq 2 such that mn1m n - 1 divides n31n^{3} - 1.

Solution

The solutions are (k,k2)\left(k, k^{2}\right) and (k2,k)\left(k^{2}, k\right), with k2k \geq 2.
We have mn1(n31)mn2(mn1)=n2mm n - 1 \mid \left(n^{3} - 1\right) m - n^{2}(m n - 1) = n^{2} - m, hence
mn1m(n2m)(mn1)n=nm2 m n - 1 \mid m\left(n^{2} - m\right) - (m n - 1) n = n - m^{2}
If n>m2n > m^{2}, then mn1nm2n1m n - 1 \leq n - m^{2} \leq n - 1, so mnnm n \leq n, not possible.
If n=m2n = m^{2}, then obviously m31m61m^{3} - 1 \mid m^{6} - 1, so all pairs (m,m2m, m^{2}), m2m \geq 2 are solutions.
If n<m2n < m^{2}, from mn1n31m n - 1 \leq n^{3} - 1 we obtain that n<mn2\sqrt{n} < m \leq n^{2}. Then mn1m2n<m21m n - 1 \leq m^{2} - n < m^{2} - 1, hence n<mn < m. If n2m>0n^{2} - m > 0, we get mn1n2m<n21m 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 m31m31m^{3} - 1 \mid m^{3} - 1, so all pairs (n2,n),n2\left(n^{2}, n\right), n \geq 2, are also solutions.

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