Problem:
Let , and be positive integers. Denote by the number of the representations of as a sum of numbers of the form , where is a positive integer. Let be the least positive integer such that the equation has a solution in positive integers and set . Prove that the number of the positive divisors of does not exceed .
Solution
Solution:
The function is increasing for , since implies that
Thus it is enough to find such that , where is the number of the distinct positive integers that divide . Let be the minimal positive integer, for which the equation has a solution. Then . Fix now , , .
Note that the numbers of the solution of the equation such that divides and , is equal to . Indeed, if for some , then . So divides and there are exactly possibilities for .
Hence is not less than minus the number of the cases, when . This cases are at most which implies the desired inequality.
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