Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Show that there is an infinite number of positive integers tt such that none of the equations x2+y6=tx^2 + y^6 = t, x2+y6=t+1x^2 + y^6 = t + 1, x2y6=tx^2 - y^6 = t, x2y6=t+1x^2 - y^6 = t + 1 has solutions (x,y)Z×Z(x, y) \in \mathbb{Z} \times \mathbb{Z}.

Solution

If xx is a positive integer, then either x120(mod13)x^{12} \equiv 0 \pmod{13} or x121(mod13)x^{12} \equiv 1 \pmod{13}, hence x6x^6 is congruent with 1-1, 00 or 11 modulo 1313. Therefore, if tt is congruent with 6(mod13)6 \pmod{13}, then ±x6+t\pm x^6 + t is congruent with 55, 66 or 7(mod13)7 \pmod{13}, while ±x6+t+1\pm x^6 + t + 1 is congruent with 66, 77 or 8(mod13)8 \pmod{13}.

On the other hand, perfect squares are congruent with 00, 11, 44, 99, 33, 1212 or 10(mod13)10 \pmod{13}. Therefore a perfect square can not be equal to a number of the form ±x6+t\pm x^6 + t or ±x6+t+1\pm x^6 + t + 1 if t6(mod13)t \equiv 6 \pmod{13}. In conclusion, all the numbers that are congruent with 66 modulo 1313 have the required property.

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