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Number theory Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Bulgaria

We will call a natural number mm remarkable if there exist integers aa, bb, cc, for which m=a3+2b3+4c36abcm = a^3 + 2b^3 + 4c^3 - 6abc. Prove that there exists a natural number n<2024n < 2024 such that for infinitely many prime numbers pp, the number npnp is remarkable.

Solution

Lemma. Let pp be a prime number and aa, bb, cZ/pZc \in \mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}. Then there exist xx, yy, zZz \in \mathbb{Z} such that x|x|, y|y|, z<p3|z| < \sqrt[3]{p}, (x,y,z)(0,0,0)(x, y, z) \neq (0, 0, 0) and ax+by+cz0(modp)ax + by + cz \equiv 0 \pmod{p}.

Proof. Consider the set M:={(x,y,z):x,y,z{0,1,,p3}}M := \{(x, y, z) : x, y, z \in \{0, 1, \dots, \lfloor \sqrt[3]{p} \rfloor\}\}. We have that M>p|M| > p, i.e. in MM there are two distinct elements (x1,y1,z1)(x_1, y_1, z_1) and (x2,y2,z2)(x_2, y_2, z_2), for which ax1+by1+cz1ax2+by2+cz2(modp)ax_1 + by_1 + cz_1 \equiv ax_2 + by_2 + cz_2 \pmod{p}. Thus (x1x2,y1y2,z1z2)(x_1 - x_2, y_1 - y_2, z_1 - z_2) satisfies the conditions of the lemma.

Now let p2(mod3)p \equiv 2 \pmod{3}. Then the comparison x32(modp)x^3 \equiv 2 \pmod{p} has a solution aa, since the function xx3x \mapsto x^3 is injective in Z/pZ\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}, hence it is surjective. One way to verify this is to see that x31(modp)x^3 \equiv 1 \pmod{p} has only 11 for a solution, since (3,p1)=1(3, p-1) = 1 and hence the exponent of xx (mod pp) is 11.

From the lemma, there exist xx, yy, zz with x|x|, y|y|, z<p3|z| < \sqrt[3]{p}, for which x+ay+a2z0(modp)x + ay + a^2z \equiv 0 \pmod{p}. From here we get that x3+a3y3+a6z33a3xyz0(modp)x^3 + a^3y^3 + a^6z^3 - 3a^3xyz \equiv 0 \pmod{p}. The latter is equivalent to x3+2y3+4z36xyz0(modp)x^3 + 2y^3 + 4z^3 - 6xyz \equiv 0 \pmod{p}.

On the other hand x|x|, y|y|, z<p3|z| < \sqrt[3]{p} gives x3+2y3+4z36xyz<13p|x^3 + 2y^3 + 4z^3 - 6xyz| < 13p. Also notice that if x3+2y3+4z36xyz<0x^3 + 2y^3 + 4z^3 - 6xyz < 0, then the triple (x,y,z)(-x, -y, -z) will give a natural number divisible by pp.

It remains to note that x3+2y3+4z36xyz0x^3 + 2y^3 + 4z^3 - 6xyz \neq 0. Indeed, if x3+2y3+4z36xyz=0x^3 + 2y^3 + 4z^3 - 6xyz = 0, then we have (x+23y+43z)((x23y)2+(x43z)2+(23y43z)2)=0(x + \sqrt[3]{2}y + \sqrt[3]{4}z)((x - \sqrt[3]{2}y)^2 + (x - \sqrt[3]{4}z)^2 + (\sqrt[3]{2}y - \sqrt[3]{4}z)^2) = 0, i.e. x=23y=43zx = \sqrt[3]{2}y = \sqrt[3]{4}z or x+y23+z43=0x + y\sqrt[3]{2} + z\sqrt[3]{4} = 0, whose only integer solutions are (x,y,z)=(0,0,0)(x, y, z) = (0, 0, 0) (the first follows because 23\sqrt[3]{2} is irrational, and the second follows from the fact that x32x^3 - 2 is the minimal polynomial of 23\sqrt[3]{2} over the rational numbers). \square

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