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Number theory Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it Croatia

Determine all pairs (m,n)(m, n) of positive integers so that n2m1n \mid 2m-1 and m2n1m \mid 2n-1.

Solution

We can conclude that there exist k,lNk, l \in \mathbb{N} such that 2m1=kn2m-1 = k n and 2n1=lm2n-1 = l m. It follows that
4n2=2(2n1)=2lm=2ml=(nk+1)l. 4n - 2 = 2(2n - 1) = 2 \cdot l m = 2m \cdot l = (n k + 1) l.
From 4n2=(nk+1)l4n - 2 = (n k + 1) l we get
(4kl)n=l+2. (4 - k l) n = l + 2.
Since the right hand side is positive, it follows that 4kl>04 - k l > 0, that is kl<4k l < 4. Since kk and ll are positive integers, we have the following possibilities:

a. kl=1k l = 1, that is k=l=1k = l = 1. We get 2m1=n2m - 1 = n, 2n1=m2n - 1 = m, from which follows m=n=1m = n = 1.

b. kl=2k l = 2. That is not possible, since from 2m1=kn2m - 1 = k n, 2n1=lm2n - 1 = l m it follows that kk and ll are both odd.

c. kl=3k l = 3, that is k=3k = 3, l=1l = 1 or k=1k = 1, l=3l = 3. In the first case from 2m1=3n2m - 1 = 3n, 2n1=m2n - 1 = m we get m=5m = 5, n=3n = 3. Analogously, in the second case we get m=3m = 3, n=5n = 5.

Hence, all the solutions are (m,n){(1,1),(3,5),(5,3)}(m, n) \in \{(1, 1), (3, 5), (5, 3)\}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.