Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /28 of 65

Number theory Difficulty 6.0 National Olympiad Prove it Bulgaria

Problem:
Let aa, bb and cc be positive integers such that one of them is coprime with any of the other two. Prove that there are positive integers xx, yy and zz such that xa=yb+zcx^{a} = y^{b} + z^{c}.

Solution

Solution:
We consider two cases.

Case 1. Let (a,b)=(a,c)=1(a, b) = (a, c) = 1. Then (a,bc)=1(a, b c) = 1 and hence there are integers uu and vv such that ua+vbc=1u a + v b c = 1. This means that aa divides vbc+1-v b c + 1. If k1k \geq 1 is a positive integer such that aa divides vk-v - k, then aa divides kbc+1k b c + 1, i.e. kbc+1=atk b c + 1 = a t. Hence setting x=2tx = 2^{t}, y=2kcy = 2^{k c} and z=2kbz = 2^{k b} we have that
yb+zc=2kbc+2kbc=2kbc+1=(2t)a=xa y^{b} + z^{c} = 2^{k b c} + 2^{k b c} = 2^{k b c + 1} = \left(2^{t}\right)^{a} = x^{a}

Case 2. Let (c,a)=(c,b)=1(c, a) = (c, b) = 1. Then (c,ab)=1(c, a b) = 1 and as above we find a positive integer kk such that cc divides kab+1k a b + 1, i.e., kab+1=ctk a b + 1 = c t. Hence setting x=2(2a1)kbx = 2\left(2^{a} - 1\right)^{k b}, y=(2a1)kay = \left(2^{a} - 1\right)^{k a} and z=(2a1)tz = \left(2^{a} - 1\right)^{t} one has that
xayb=2a(2a1)kab(2a1)kab=(2a1)kab+1=zc x^{a} - y^{b} = 2^{a}\left(2^{a} - 1\right)^{k a b} - \left(2^{a} - 1\right)^{k a b} = \left(2^{a} - 1\right)^{k a b + 1} = z^{c}

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.