Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /12 of 16

Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Let pp be a prime number and let aa be an integer. Show that if n25n^{2}-5 is not divisible by pp for any integer nn, there exist infinitely many integers mm so that pp divides m5+am^{5}+a.

Solution

Solution:
We start with a simple fact:

Lemma: If bb is an integer not divisible by pp then there is an integer ss so that sbs b has the remainder ll when divided by pp.
For a proof, just note that numbers b,2b,,(p1)bb, 2b, \ldots, (p-1)b have distinct non-zero remainders when divided by pp, and hence one of them is equal to 11.

We prove that if x,y=0,1,2,,p1x, y = 0, 1, 2, \ldots, p-1 and pp divides x5y5x^{5} - y^{5}, then x=yx = y.
Indeed, assume that xyx \neq y. If x=0x = 0, then py5p \mid y^{5} and so y=0y = 0, a contradiction.
To this point we have x,y0x, y \neq 0. Since
p(xy)(x4+x3y+x2y2+xy3+y4) p \mid (x-y)\left(x^{4} + x^{3}y + x^{2}y^{2} + x y^{3} + y^{4}\right)
and p(xy)p \nmid (x-y),
we have
p(x2+y2)2+xy(x2+y2)x2y2, and so p(2(x2+y2)+xy)25x2y2 \begin{aligned} & p \mid \left(x^{2} + y^{2}\right)^{2} + x y \left(x^{2} + y^{2}\right) - x^{2} y^{2}, \text{ and so } \\ & p \mid \left(2\left(x^{2} + y^{2}\right) + x y\right)^{2} - 5 x^{2} y^{2} \end{aligned}
As pxyp \nmid x y, from the lemma we find an integer ss so that sxy=kp+1s x y = k p + 1, kNk \in \mathbb{N}. Then
p[s(2x2+2y2+xy)]25(k2p2+2kp+1) p \mid \left[s\left(2 x^{2} + 2 y^{2} + x y\right)\right]^{2} - 5\left(k^{2} p^{2} + 2 k p + 1\right)
and so pz25p \mid z^{2} - 5, where z=s(2x2+2y2+xy)z = s\left(2 x^{2} + 2 y^{2} + x y\right), a contradiction.
Consequently x=yx = y.

Since we have proved that numbers 05,15,,(p1)50^{5}, 1^{5}, \ldots, (p-1)^{5} have distinct remainders when divided by pp, the same goes for the numbers 05+a,15+a,,(p1)5+a0^{5} + a, 1^{5} + a, \ldots, (p-1)^{5} + a and the conclusion can be reached easily.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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