Problem:
Find all finite sets of positive integers with at least two elements, such that if are two elements of , then
is also an element of .
Solution
Solution:
Trying to apply number theoretical methods to deduce something from the fact that divides does not seem to lead anywhere. Instead, we will try to find the extreme values that the quotient can achieve. This will give us some interesting bounds on the elements of .
a. First, since contains at least two elements, we take to be the largest and smallest elements of . Since also belongs to we must have
b. Now, consider the second largest element of . The number belongs to . We claim that , which implies
We prove the previous claim in the following lemma.
Lemma 1
The equation has no positive integer solutions .
Proof. Assume such a solution exists, then it also solves
Since the equation is homogeneous (of degree 2), we can assume that . Since we must have , we deduce that . This is a contradiction since is a positive integer with .
Combining the two relations above, and using that , we get
Therefore and contains exactly two elements. Moreover, the inequalities above also imply . So as desired.
Any such set satisfies the desired property because