Problem:
A number is bad if there exists some integer for which has no integer solutions for . Find the number of bad integers between and inclusive.
, 2015
Solution
Solution:
Call a number good if it is not bad. We claim all good numbers are products of distinct primes, none of which are equivalent to modulo another.
We first show that all such numbers are good. Consider , and let be a number satisfying and . Since, by assumption, and are relatively prime, such an must exist by CRT. Then , for any , as desired.
We now show that all other numbers are bad. Suppose that there exist some such that (which must hold for some two primes by assumption), and hence . Consider some for which is not a th power modulo , which must exist as can take any value modulo (as are relatively prime). We then claim that is not solvable.
Since , we have , hence . But then is a th power modulo as , contradicting our choice of . As a result, all such numbers are bad.
Finally, it is easy to see that is bad if it is not squarefree. If divides twice, then letting makes the given equivalence unsolvable.
Hence, there are numbers (13 primes: ; and 3 semiprimes: , , ) that are good, which means that numbers are bad.