Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /3 of 5

Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Brazil

Given positive integers aa, cc and integer bb, prove that there exists a positive integer xx such that
ax+xb(modc), a^x + x \equiv b \pmod{c},
that is, there exists a positive integer xx such that cc is a divisor of ax+xba^x + x - b.

Solution

Let \ell be the length of the cycle of the sequence a,a2,a3,a, a^2, a^3, \dots mod cc. Thus
a+ka(modc)() a^{\ell + \ell k} \equiv a^\ell \pmod{c} \quad (*)
for all positive integer kk and \ell large enough.

Let d=gcd(,c)d = \gcd(\ell, c). The multiples of \ell mod cc are the multiples of dd. Let's prove that if c>1c > 1 then d<cd < c. Since dd divides cc, dcd \leq c.
Suppose that d=cd = c. So cc divides \ell. Note that it's not possible that two equal remainders appear in the same cycle, because aa(modc)a' \equiv a' \pmod{c} implies acac(modc)a'^c \equiv a'^c \pmod{c}, that is, iji-j is multiple of \ell, contradiction. Hence the length of the cycle of a,a2,a3,a, a^2, a^3, \dots mod cc does not exceed cc. Thus, if cc divides \ell, c=c = \ell. This means that cc divides some ana^n and also every bigger power of aa. Hence, =1\ell = 1 and c=1c = 1.
The problem now goes by induction on cc. It is obvious for c=1c = 1. Suppose that c>1c > 1 and that the result is true for every positive integer less than cc. Then it is true for dd, because d<cd < c. By the induction hypothesis, there are sufficiently large n0,n1,n2,,nd1n_0, n_1, n_2, \dots, n_{d-1} such that
ani+nii(modd) a^{n_i} + n_i \equiv i \pmod{d}
for every i=0,1,2,,d1i = 0, 1, 2, \dots, d-1.
Let b=qd+rb = qd + r, with 0r<d0 \leq r < d. So, from anr+nr=r+mda^{n_r} + n_r = r + md and ()(*),
anr+k+(nr+k)anr+(nr+k)r+md+k(modc)() a^{n_r + \ell k} + (n_r + \ell k) \equiv a^{n_r} + (n_r + \ell k) \equiv r + md + \ell k \pmod{c} \quad (**)
But, when kk varies, k(modc)\ell k \pmod{c} goes through all multiples of dd. Thus there exists kk such that k(qm)d(modc)\ell k \equiv (q-m)d \pmod{c}. Plugging it in ()(**),
anr+k+(nr+k)r+md+(qm)d(modc)    anr+k+(nr+k)r+qdb(modc) a^{n_r + \ell k} + (n_r + \ell k) \equiv r + md + (q - m)d \pmod{c} \\ \iff a^{n_r + \ell k} + (n_r + \ell k) \equiv r + qd \equiv b \pmod{c}
Hence, we can take x=nr+kx = n_r + \ell k and the induction step is complete.

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 and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.