Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Prove it Serbia

Problem:

Let nn be a natural number greater than 1. Prove that there exists a natural number mm greater than nnn^{n} such that
nmmnn+m \frac{n^{m}-m^{n}}{n+m}
is a natural number.

Solution

Solution:

First let us notice that for m>n3m>n \geqslant 3 we have nm>mnn^{m}>m^{n}, so nmmnm+n>0\frac{n^{m}-m^{n}}{m+n}>0. Indeed, the function f(x)=lnxxf(x)=\frac{\ln x}{x} is decreasing for x>ex>e since f(x)=1lnxx2<0f^{\prime}(x)=\frac{1-\ln x}{x^{2}}<0, so lnnn>lnmm\frac{\ln n}{n}>\frac{\ln m}{m}, i.e. mlnn>nlnmm \ln n>n \ln m, and from there nm=emlnn>enlnm=mnn^{m}=e^{m \ln n}>e^{n \ln m}=m^{n}.

For n=2n=2 we may take m=10m=10. Suppose that n>2n>2. We have
nmmnnm(n)n=nn(nmn(1)n)(modm+n) n^{m}-m^{n} \equiv n^{m}-(-n)^{n}=n^{n}\left(n^{m-n}-(-1)^{n}\right) \quad(\bmod m+n)
We will look for mm in the form m=knnn (kN)m=k n^{n}-n\ (k \in \mathbb{N}). Then m+n=knnnmmnm+n=k n^{n} \mid n^{m}-m^{n} if and only if knmn(1)nk \mid n^{m-n}-(-1)^{n}.

(1)(1^{\circ}) If nn is odd, then nmn(1)nn^{m-n}-(-1)^{n} is even, so we can take k=2k=2, i.e. m=2nnnm=2 n^{n}-n.

(2)(2^{\circ}) If nn is even, then nmn(1)n=nmn1n^{m-n}-(-1)^{n}=n^{m-n}-1 is divisible by n1n-1, so we can take k=n1k=n-1, i.e. m=(n1)nnnm=(n-1) n^{n}-n.

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