Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /43 of 96

, 2021

Number theory Difficulty 8.3 Shortlist Prove it Baltic Way

Distinct positive integers aa, bb, cc, dd satisfy
{ab2+c2+d2ba2+c2+d2ca2+b2+d2da2+b2+c2. \begin{cases} a|b^2 + c^2 + d^2 \\ b|a^2 + c^2 + d^2 \\ c|a^2 + b^2 + d^2 \\ d|a^2 + b^2 + c^2 \end{cases} .
Also it is known that none of them is larger than the product of three others. What is the largest possible number of primes among them?

Solution

At first we note that the given condition is equivalent to aa, bb, cc, dd dividing a2+b2+c2+d2a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + d^2.
It is possible that three of the given numbers are primes, for example for a=2a = 2, b=3b = 3, c=13c = 13 and d=26d = 26. In this case 22+32+132+262=13662^2 + 3^2 + 13^2 + 26^2 = 13 \cdot 66 which is divisible by all four given numbers. Furthermore we will show that it is impossible that all four of them are primes.
Let us assume that aa, bb, cc and dd are primes. As the sum a2+b2+c2+d2a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + d^2 is divisible by each of them then it is divisible also by their product abcdabcd. If one of the primes is equal to 22, then we obtain a contradiction: the sum of four squares is odd, but its divisor abcdabcd is even. Therefore all four primes are odd, and a2+b2+c2+d2=0(mod4)a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2=0 \pmod 4. Hence a2+b2+c2+d2a^2+b^2+c^2+d^2 is divisible by 4abcd4abcd which leads to a contradiction as it is easy to see that a2+b2+c2+d2<4abcda^2+b^2+c^2+d^2 < 4abcd. Indeed, this is equivalent to
abcd+bacd+cabd+dabc<4 \frac{a}{bcd} + \frac{b}{acd} + \frac{c}{abd} + \frac{d}{abc} < 4
which is true as none of the numbers exceed the product of three other and equality can hold only for the largest of the four.

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.