Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it Estonia

Find all prime numbers pp such that 2p3+4p23p+122p^3 + 4p^2 - 3p + 12 is the fifth power of an integer.

Solution

Denote f(n)=2n3+4n23n+12f(n) = 2n^3 + 4n^2 - 3n + 12. The following table shows the remainders of n2,n3,n5n^2, n^3, n^5 and f(n)f(n) upon division by 11:

nn012345678910
n2n^201495335941
n3n^3018594726310
n5n^50110111101010110
f(n)f(n)14555694376

As one can see from the table, the only remainders upon division by 11 that the fifth power of an arbitrary integer nn can give are 0, 1 and 10. On the other hand, integers of the form f(n)f(n) give only remainders 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 upon division by 11, whereby the remainder is 1 only if nn is divisible by 11. Consequently, f(p)f(p) can be the fifth power of an integer only if pp is divisible by 11. As pp is prime, the only possibility is p=11p = 11. And indeed, f(11)=2113+4112311+12=3125=55f(11) = 2 \cdot 11^3 + 4 \cdot 11^2 - 3 \cdot 11 + 12 = 3125 = 5^5.

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