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Number theory Difficulty 6.3 National Olympiad Prove it Serbia

Problem:

Solve the equation
12x+y4=2008z 12^{x} + y^{4} = 2008^{z}
in the set of integers.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Solution:

For x<0x < 0 or z0z \leq 0 the only solution is the trivial one (0,0,0)(0, 0, 0). From now on let z>0z > 0. Since 2008=232512008 = 2^{3} \cdot 251, both sides of the equation are divisible by 251251. Suppose that x=2x1x = 2x_{1} is even. Then (2x1)2(y2)2(mod251)\left(2^{x_{1}}\right)^{2} \equiv -\left(y^{2}\right)^{2} \pmod{251}, which upon raising to the 125125-th power gives 1(2x1)250(y2)25011 \equiv \left(2^{x_{1}}\right)^{250} \equiv -\left(y^{2}\right)^{250} \equiv -1 by Fermat's little theorem, which is impossible. Therefore, xx must be odd.

It is clear that yy is even. Let us write y=2uy1y = 2^{u} y_{1} for odd y1y_{1}. We have
22x3x+24uy14=23z251z 2^{2x} 3^{x} + 2^{4u} y_{1}^{4} = 2^{3z} 251^{z}
Since 2x4u2x \neq 4u because xx is odd, the highest power of two dividing the left-hand side is 22x2^{2x} or 24u2^{4u}, while the highest power of two dividing the right-hand side equals 23z2^{3z}, whence 3z=2x3z = 2x or 3z=4u3z = 4u. We shall show that in neither of these two cases does the given equation have solutions.

i. 3z=2x<4u3z = 2x < 4u; hence, 2z2 \mid z. Dividing by 22x2^{2x} gives 3x+24u2xy14=251z3^{x} + 2^{4u-2x} y_{1}^{4} = 251^{z} which is impossible because the left-hand side is of the form 4k+34k+3 (since 2x2 \nmid x), while the right-hand side is of the form 4k+14k+1 (kNk \in \mathbb{N}).

ii. 3z=4u<2x3z = 4u < 2x; again 2z2 \mid z. Dividing by 24u2^{4u} gives 22x4u3x+y14=251z2^{2x-4u} 3^{x} + y_{1}^{4} = 251^{z}. The right-hand side is of the form 5k+15k+1, so for 5y15 \nmid y_{1} we have y141y_{1}^{4} \equiv 1 and 22x4u3x0(mod5)2^{2x-4u} 3^{x} \equiv 0 \pmod{5} which is impossible, while for 5y15 \mid y_{1} we have 122x4u3x±3x±3(mod5)1 \equiv 2^{2x-4u} 3^{x} \equiv \pm 3^{x} \equiv \pm 3 \pmod{5} since 2x2 \nmid x, again impossible.

Solution 2

Solution:

For even xx the left-hand side of the equation is of the form a2+b2a^{2} + b^{2}, and for odd xx the left-hand side is of the form a2+3b2a^{2} + 3b^{2}. However, since 1-1 and 3-3 are quadratic non-residues modulo 251251, neither a2+b2a^{2} + b^{2} nor a2+3b2a^{2} + 3b^{2} can be divisible by 251251 if 251a,b251 \nmid a, b. Therefore, the given equation has no integer solutions for z0z \geq 0.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from sr; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.