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Number theory Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Italy

Problem:

Determine all pairs of integers (a,b)(a, b) that solve the equation a3+b3+3ab=1a^{3}+b^{3}+3 a b=1.

Solution

Solution:

The equation is symmetric in aa and bb, so we can restrict ourselves to considering solutions with aba \geq b. There are no solutions with aa and bb both positive: indeed in that case we would have a3+b3+3ab1+1+3=5>1a^{3}+b^{3}+3 a b \geq 1+1+3=5>1, a contradiction.

If at least one of aa and bb is equal to zero, say bb, then substituting into the equation we find a3=1a^{3}=1, that is a=1a=1, giving the two solutions (1,0)(1,0) and (0,1)(0,1).

If then aa and bb are both strictly less than 00, then (still assuming ba<0b \leq a<0) we find a3+b3+3ab<b(b2+3a)a^{3}+b^{3}+3 a b < b\left(b^{2}+3 a\right). If we had b3b \leq -3, then we would also have b2+3a3b+3a=3(ab)0b^{2}+3 a \geq -3 b+3 a=3(a-b) \geq 0 and therefore b(b2+3a)b\left(b^{2}+3 a\right) could not be positive. It would follow that a3+b3+3ab<b(b2+3a)0a^{3}+b^{3}+3 a b < b\left(b^{2}+3 a\right) \leq 0, and hence (a,b)(a, b) cannot be a solution if b3b \leq -3. We must therefore check the cases b=2b=-2 and b=1b=-1, which (recalling that we are assuming a<0a<0) lead to the unique solution (a,b)=(1,1)(a, b)=(-1,-1).

It remains for us to determine the solutions with a>0a>0 and b<0b<0: let us set c=bc=-b, so that cc is a positive integer. The equation can be rewritten in the two equivalent forms
3ac+1=a3c3,a3=c3+3ac+1; 3 a c+1=a^{3}-c^{3}, \quad a^{3}=c^{3}+3 a c+1 ;
from the second expression we deduce that a>ca>c, while from the first we find 3ac+1=(ac)(c2+ca+a2)3 a c+1=(a-c)\left(c^{2}+c a+a^{2}\right). Since ac1a-c \geq 1 we then have
3ac+1=(ac)(c2+ca+a2)c2+ca+a2, 3 a c+1=(a-c)\left(c^{2}+c a+a^{2}\right) \geq c^{2}+c a+a^{2},
from which 1c22ca+a21 \geq c^{2}-2 c a+a^{2}, that is (ac)21(a-c)^{2} \leq 1. Since we have already observed that aca-c is positive, it must be that ac=1a-c=1, and substituting a=c+1a=c+1 we find
c3+3c2+3c+1=c3+3c(c+1)+1, c^{3}+3 c^{2}+3 c+1=c^{3}+3 c(c+1)+1,
an equation that is satisfied for any value of cc. Recalling that at the beginning we had assumed aba \geq b we then see that the solutions of the proposed equation are the pair (a,b)=(1,1)(a, b)=(-1,-1) and the infinitely many pairs (a,b)=(a,c)=(c+1,c)(a, b)=(a,-c)=(c+1,-c) for every integer value of cc: those with c0c \geq 0 are those for which aba \geq b, and those with c<0c<0 are the symmetric ones with a<ba<b.

Second Solution: We observe that
a3+b31+3ab=a3+b3+(1)33ab(1)=(a+b1)(a2+b2+1ab+a+b), a^{3}+b^{3}-1+3 a b=a^{3}+b^{3}+(-1)^{3}-3 a b \cdot(-1)=(a+b-1)\left(a^{2}+b^{2}+1-a b+a+b\right),
so the pairs of the form (n,1n)(n, 1-n) are solutions for every integer nn.

Multiplying the second factor by 44, moreover, we can write
4a2+4b2+44ab+4a+4b=(2ab+1)2+3(b+1)2, 4 a^{2}+4 b^{2}+4-4 a b+4 a+4 b=(2 a-b+1)^{2}+3(b+1)^{2},
which, being a sum of squares, vanishes only when (2ab+1)=(b+1)=0(2 a-b+1)=(b+1)=0, that is when a=b=1a=b=-1.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.