Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Romania

Let p>5p > 5 be a prime number and S={pn2nN,n2<p}S = \{p - n^2 \mid n \in \mathbb{N}, n^2 < p\}. Prove that SS contains two elements aa and bb such that 1<a<b1 < a < b and aa divides bb.

BMO, 1996

Solution

We show that the smallest element of SS that is greater than 11 divides a larger element of SS. If pp is of the form m2+1m^2 + 1, with mNm \in \mathbb{N}, we show that p(m1)2=2mp - (m - 1)^2 = 2m divides p21=m2p^2 - 1 = m^2. Indeed, as mm is even, it follows that 2mm22m \mid m^2.

If pp cannot be written as m2+1m^2 + 1, mNm \in \mathbb{N}, pp cannot be written as m2+2mm^2 + 2m either (this is a composite number because m>1m > 1), hence m2+1<p<m2+2mm^2 + 1 < p < m^2 + 2m for some mNm \in \mathbb{N} (m2m \ge 2). We show that pm2p - m^2, which is an element of SS that is larger than 11, divides another element of SS. The condition that pm2p - m^2 divides one of the numbers pn2p - n^2 with n{0,1,2,,m1}n \in \{0, 1, 2, \dots, m-1\} is equivalent to pm2p - m^2 dividing one of the numbers m2,m212,m222,,m2(m1)2m^2, m^2 - 1^2, m^2 - 2^2, \dots, m^2 - (m-1)^2. Being smaller than 2m2m, pm2p - m^2 divides one of the following 2m12m-1 consecutive numbers: 1,2,,m11, 2, \dots, m-1, mm, m+1,,2m1m+1, \dots, 2m-1, hence it divides one of the differences m202,m212,,m2(m1)2m^2 - 0^2, m^2 - 1^2, \dots, m^2 - (m-1)^2. Moreover, it does not divide m2m^2, because it would divide pp.

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