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Number theory Difficulty 7.9 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO)

Problem:

We denote the number of positive divisors of a positive integer mm by d(m)d(m) and the number of distinct prime divisors of mm by ω(m)\omega(m). Let kk be a positive integer. Prove that there exist infinitely many positive integers nn such that ω(n)=k\omega(n)=k and d(n)d(n) does not divide d(a2+b2)d\left(a^{2}+b^{2}\right) for any positive integers a,ba, b satisfying a+b=na+b=n.

Solution

Solution:

We will show that any number of the form n=2p1mn=2^{p-1} m where mm is a positive integer that has exactly k1k-1 prime factors all of which are greater than 33 and pp is a prime number such that (5/4)(p1)/2>m(5 / 4)^{(p-1) / 2}>m satisfies the given condition.

Suppose that aa and bb are positive integers such that a+b=na+b=n and d(n)d(a2+b2)d(n) \mid d\left(a^{2}+b^{2}\right). Then pd(a2+b2)p \mid d\left(a^{2}+b^{2}\right). Hence a2+b2=qcp1ra^{2}+b^{2}=q^{c p-1} r where qq is a prime, cc is a positive integer and rr is a positive integer not divisible by qq. If q5q \geq 5, then
22p2m2=n2=(a+b)2>a2+b2=qcp1rqp15p1 2^{2 p-2} m^{2}=n^{2}=(a+b)^{2}>a^{2}+b^{2}=q^{c p-1} r \geq q^{p-1} \geq 5^{p-1}
gives a contradiction. So qq is 22 or 33.

If q=3q=3, then a2+b2a^{2}+b^{2} is divisible by 33 and this implies that both aa and bb are divisible by 33. This means n=a+bn=a+b is divisible by 33, a contradiction. Hence q=2q=2.

Now we have a+b=2p1ma+b=2^{p-1} m and a2+b2=2cp1ra^{2}+b^{2}=2^{c p-1} r. If the highest powers of 22 dividing aa and bb are different, then a+b=2p1ma+b=2^{p-1} m implies that the smaller one must be 2p12^{p-1} and this makes 22p22^{2 p-2} the highest power of 22 dividing a2+b2=2cp1ra^{2}+b^{2}=2^{c p-1} r, or equivalently, cp1=2p2c p-1=2 p-2, which is not possible. Therefore a=2ta0a=2^{t} a_{0} and b=2tb0b=2^{t} b_{0} for some positive integer t<p1t<p-1 and odd integers a0a_{0} and b0b_{0}. Then a02+b02=2cp12tra_{0}^{2}+b_{0}^{2}=2^{c p-1-2 t} r. The left side of this equality is congruent to 22 modulo 44, therefore cp12tc p-1-2 t must be 11. But then t<p1t<p-1 gives (c/2)p=t+1<p(c / 2) p=t+1<p, which is not possible either.

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