Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 8.6 Shortlist Prove it IMO

Let n1n \geq 1 be an odd integer. Determine all functions ff from the set of integers to itself such that for all integers xx and yy the difference f(x)f(y)f(x)-f(y) divides xnynx^{n}-y^{n}.

Solution

Obviously, all functions in the answer satisfy the condition of the problem. We will show that there are no other functions satisfying that condition.
Let ff be a function satisfying the given condition. For each integer nn, the function gg defined by g(x)=f(x)+ng(x)=f(x)+n also satisfies the same condition. Therefore, by subtracting f(0)f(0) from f(x)f(x) we may assume that f(0)=0f(0)=0.
For any prime pp, the condition on ff with (x,y)=(p,0)(x, y)=(p, 0) states that f(p)f(p) divides pnp^{n}. Since the set of primes is infinite, there exist integers dd and ε\varepsilon with 0dn0 \leq d \leq n and ε{1,1}\varepsilon \in\{1,-1\} such that for infinitely many primes pp we have f(p)=εpdf(p)=\varepsilon p^{d}. Denote the set of these primes by PP. Since a function gg satisfies the given condition if and only if g-g satisfies the same condition, we may suppose ε=1\varepsilon=1.
The case d=0d=0 is easily ruled out, because 0 does not divide any nonzero integer. Suppose d1d \geq 1 and write nn as md+rm d+r, where mm and rr are integers such that m1m \geq 1 and 0rd10 \leq r \leq d-1. Let xx be an arbitrary integer. For each prime pp in PP, the difference f(p)f(x)f(p)-f(x) divides pnxnp^{n}-x^{n}. Using the equality f(p)=pdf(p)=p^{d}, we get
pnxn=pr(pd)mxnprf(x)mxn0(modpdf(x)) p^{n}-x^{n}=p^{r}\left(p^{d}\right)^{m}-x^{n} \equiv p^{r} f(x)^{m}-x^{n} \equiv 0 \quad\left(\bmod p^{d}-f(x)\right)
Since we have r<dr<d, for large enough primes pPp \in P we obtain
prf(x)mxn<pdf(x). \left|p^{r} f(x)^{m}-x^{n}\right|<p^{d}-f(x) .
Hence prf(x)mxnp^{r} f(x)^{m}-x^{n} has to be zero. This implies r=0r=0 and xn=(xd)m=f(x)mx^{n}=\left(x^{d}\right)^{m}=f(x)^{m}. Since mm is odd, we obtain f(x)=xdf(x)=x^{d}.

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