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Number theory Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Austria

Determine all pairs (a,b)(a, b) of non-negative integers, such that ab+ba^b + b divides a2b+2ba^{2b} + 2b. (Note that 00=10^0 = 1 holds.)

Solution

For brevity, we name n=ab+bn = a^b + b and m=a2b+2bm = a^{2b} + 2b.

For a=b=0a = b = 0, we obtain n=m=1n = m = 1, and therefore nmn|m. We see that (0,0)(0, 0) is a solution.

For a=0a = 0 and b>0b > 0, we obtain n=bn = b and m=2bm = 2b, and again nmn|m. We see that (0,b)(0, b) is, in fact a solution for all values of bb.

For a=1a = 1, we obtain n=b+1n = b + 1 and m=2b+1m = 2b + 1. The only way (b+1)(2b+1)(b+1)|(2b+1) can hold is for b=0b = 0. We see that (1,0)(1,0) is also a solution.

For b=0b = 0, we obtain n=1n = 1 and m=1m = 1, and again nmn|m. (a,0)(a,0) is therefore a solution for all values of aa.

We now consider the general case, where a>1a > 1 and b>0b > 0. Since
ab+ba2b+2b=(ab)2b2+(b2+2b)=(ab+b)(abb)+b(b+2), a^b + b \mid a^{2b} + 2b = (a^b)^2 - b^2 + (b^2 + 2b) = (a^b + b)(a^b - b) + b(b+2),
we see that ab+bb(b+2)a^b + b \mid b(b+2) must hold. For b=1b=1, we must have a+13a+1|3, and therefore a=2a=2. The only solution in this case is therefore (2,1)(2, 1).

We now consider large values of aa, specifically a3a \ge 3. For a=3a=3, we have n=3b+bn = 3^b + b, and we can show that 3b+b>b(b+2)    3b>b(b+1)3^b + b > b(b+2) \iff 3^b > b(b+1), which yields a contradiction. We show this by induction. For b=1b=1, we have 3>123 > 1 \cdot 2, which is certainly true. If we can now assume that 3k>k(k+1)3^k > k(k+1) is true, and wish to show 3k+1>(k+1)((k+1)+1)3^{k+1} > (k+1)((k+1)+1), we note that the latter expression results from the former by multiplying the left side with 33 and the right side with k+2k\frac{k+2}{k}, which is certainly not greater than 33, which proves the induction. If a>3a > 3, we have n>3b+bn > 3^b + b, which is then also certainly impossible.

Finally, the case a=2a=2 remains. As before, we can show that 2b>b(b+1)2^b > b(b+1) for b>5b > 5 (noting 32>3032 > 30). The only possible values for bb remaining are therefore 22, 33 and 44. For b=2b=2, we would have 686|8, for b=3b=3 we would have 112111|21, and for b=4b=4 we would have 202420|24, none of which is true.

In summary, the solutions are (2,1)(2, 1), all pairs (a,0)(a, 0) and all pairs (0,b)(0, b). qed

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