Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / India — Team Selection Test /39 of 77

India — Team Selection Test, 2012

Number theory Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it India

Let SS be a nonempty set of primes satisfying the property that for each proper subset PP of SS, all the prime factors of the number (∏p∈Pp)−1\left(\prod_{p \in P} p\right) - 1 are also in SS. Determine all possible such sets SS.

Solution

If SS is singleton, then the statement is vacuously true. Hence S={p}S = \{p\}, pp a prime.

Suppose SS contains two elements. One of these must be odd primes and hence 22 is in SS. Moreover p−1p-1 must be a power of 22. Hence pp is Fermat prime.

Suppose ∣S∣≥3|S| \ge 3. Here we consider two cases: ∣S∣<∞|S| < \infty and SS is an infinite set.

If ∣S∣<∞|S| < \infty, let S={p1(=2),p2,…,pr}S = \{p_1(=2), p_2, \dots, p_r\}, with r≥3r \ge 3. Since ∣S∣≥3|S| \ge 3, there is a prime of the form 3k+13k+1 or 3k+23k+2 in SS. Observe (3k+1)−1=3k(3k+1)-1=3k and 2(3k+2)−1=6k+32(3k+2)-1=6k+3 both have 33 as a prime factor. Hence 3∈S3 \in S. Now
(2⋅p3⋯pr)−1=3k and (3p3⋯pr)−1=2l, (2 \cdot p_3 \cdots p_r) - 1 = 3^k \text{ and } (3p_3 \cdots p_r) - 1 = 2^l,
for some k>0k > 0 and l>0l > 0. Hence we get
3(3k+1)=2(2l+1). 3(3^k + 1) = 2(2^l + 1).
This gives 2l+1−3k+1=12^{l+1} - 3^{k+1} = 1. The only possibility is l+1=2l+1=2 and k+1=1k+1=1. This forces k=0k=0, a contradiction. Hence 3≤∣S∣<∞3 \le |S| < \infty is not possible.

Finally assume SS is an infinite set. Suppose there exists a prime pp not in SS. Take S={p1(=2),p2,… }S = \{p_1(=2), p_2, \dots\}

Consider p1−1,p1p2−1,…,p1p2…pp−1p_1 - 1, p_1p_2 - 1, \dots, p_1p_2 \dots p_p - 1 modulo pp. Since pp is not in SS, none of them is equal to 00. By pigeonhole principle, we can find j<kj < k such that
p1p2⋯pj−1≡p1p2⋯pjpj+1⋯pk−1(modp). p_1p_2 \cdots p_j - 1 \equiv p_1p_2 \cdots p_j p_{j+1} \cdots p_k - 1 \pmod{p}.
Hence pp divides p1p2⋯pj(pj+1⋯pk−1)p_1p_2 \cdots p_j(p_{j+1} \cdots p_k - 1). But this contradicts the choice of pp that it is not in SS. Hence SS is the set of all primes now.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,604 problems in a working order, from Junior Challenge level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.