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Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all primes p,qp, q satisfying the equation 2pqqp=72 p^{q} - q^{p} = 7.

Solution

It is clear that qq must be odd, hence q3q \geq 3.

Case 1. If p=2p = 2, then we get 2q+1=q2+72^{q+1} = q^{2} + 7. For any n4n \geq 4 we have 2n+1>n2+72^{n+1} > n^{2} + 7 (by induction). Hence q=3q = 3, and we get solution (2,3)(2, 3).

Case 2. If p3p \geq 3, then we can write, and using Fermat Little Theorem,
qp=2pq7=2(pqp)+(2p7)q2p7 q^{p} = 2 p^{q} - 7 = 2\left(p^{q} - p\right) + (2p - 7) \Rightarrow q \mid 2p - 7
and
2pq=qp+7=(qpq)+(q+7)pq+7. 2 p^{q} = q^{p} + 7 = \left(q^{p} - q\right) + (q + 7) \Rightarrow p \mid q + 7.
Set q+7=kpq + 7 = k p.
If 2p70p=32p - 7 \leq 0 \Rightarrow p = 3, hence q1q \mid -1, not possible.
If 2p7>02p7q2p - 7 > 0 \Rightarrow 2p - 7 \geq q, hence 2pq+7=kp2p \geq q + 7 = k p, and we get k2k \leq 2. Therefore, we have only two possibilities for kk: k=1k = 1, k=2k = 2.
If k=1q+7=pq2q+7q=7k = 1 \Rightarrow q + 7 = p \Rightarrow q \mid 2q + 7 \Rightarrow q = 7 and p=14p = 14, not a prime, contradiction.
If k=2q+7=2pk = 2 \Rightarrow q + 7 = 2p. If q>pq > p, then we have p,q3p, q \geq 3. Hence 7=2pqqp=pq277 = 2 p^{q} - q^{p} = p^{q} \geq 27, since pq>qpp^{q} > q^{p}, not possible. Then p>qp > q, and we get q+7=2p>2qq<7q=3q + 7 = 2p > 2q \Rightarrow q < 7 \Rightarrow q = 3 or q=5q = 5. In first case we obtain p=5p = 5 and in the second case contradiction. Finally, the solutions are (p,q)=(2,3),(5,3)(p, q) = (2, 3), (5, 3).

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