Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2008

Number theory Difficulty 6.0 National Olympiad Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Determine the minimal prime number p>3p > 3 for which no natural number nn satisfies
2n+3n0(modp) 2^{n} + 3^{n} \equiv 0 \pmod{p}

Solution

Solution:
We put A(n)=2n+3nA(n) = 2^{n} + 3^{n}. From Fermat's little theorem, we have 2p11(modp)2^{p-1} \equiv 1 \pmod{p} and 3p11(modp)3^{p-1} \equiv 1 \pmod{p}, from which we conclude A(n)2(modp)A(n) \equiv 2 \pmod{p}. Therefore, after p1p-1 steps at most, we will have repetition of the power. It means that in order to determine the minimal prime number pp we seek, it is enough to determine a complete set of remainders S(p)={0,1,,p1}S(p) = \{0, 1, \ldots, p-1\} such that 2n+3n≢0(modp)2^{n} + 3^{n} \not\equiv 0 \pmod{p}, for every nS(p)n \in S(p).

For p=5p = 5 and n=1n = 1 we have A(1)0(mod5)A(1) \equiv 0 \pmod{5}.

For p=7p = 7 and n=3n = 3 we have A(3)0(mod7)A(3) \equiv 0 \pmod{7}.

For p=11p = 11 and n=5n = 5 we have A(5)0(mod11)A(5) \equiv 0 \pmod{11}.

For p=13p = 13 and n=2n = 2 we have A(2)0(mod13)A(2) \equiv 0 \pmod{13}.

For p=17p = 17 and n=8n = 8 we have A(8)0(mod17)A(8) \equiv 0 \pmod{17}.

For p=19p = 19 we have A(n)≢0(mod19)A(n) \not\equiv 0 \pmod{19}, for all nS(19)n \in S(19).

Hence the minimal value of pp is 1919.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.