Number theoryDifficulty 5.9AIME, harderProve itBulgaria
We will call a natural number m remarkable if there exist integers a, b, c, for which m=a3+2b3+4c3−6abc. Prove that there exists a natural number n<2024 such that for infinitely many prime numbers p, the number np is remarkable.
Solution
Lemma. Let p be a prime number and a, b, c∈Z/pZ. Then there exist x, y, z∈Z such that ∣x∣, ∣y∣, ∣z∣<3p, (x,y,z)=(0,0,0) and ax+by+cz≡0(modp).
Proof. Consider the set M:={(x,y,z):x,y,z∈{0,1,…,⌊3p⌋}}. We have that ∣M∣>p, i.e. in M there are two distinct elements (x1,y1,z1) and (x2,y2,z2), for which ax1+by1+cz1≡ax2+by2+cz2(modp). Thus (x1−x2,y1−y2,z1−z2) satisfies the conditions of the lemma.
Now let p≡2(mod3). Then the comparison x3≡2(modp) has a solution a, since the function x↦x3 is injective in Z/pZ, hence it is surjective. One way to verify this is to see that x3≡1(modp) has only 1 for a solution, since (3,p−1)=1 and hence the exponent of x (mod p) is 1.
From the lemma, there exist x, y, z with ∣x∣, ∣y∣, ∣z∣<3p, for which x+ay+a2z≡0(modp). From here we get that x3+a3y3+a6z3−3a3xyz≡0(modp). The latter is equivalent to x3+2y3+4z3−6xyz≡0(modp).
On the other hand ∣x∣, ∣y∣, ∣z∣<3p gives ∣x3+2y3+4z3−6xyz∣<13p. Also notice that if x3+2y3+4z3−6xyz<0, then the triple (−x,−y,−z) will give a natural number divisible by p.
It remains to note that x3+2y3+4z3−6xyz=0. Indeed, if x3+2y3+4z3−6xyz=0, then we have (x+32y+34z)((x−32y)2+(x−34z)2+(32y−34z)2)=0, i.e. x=32y=34z or x+y32+z34=0, whose only integer solutions are (x,y,z)=(0,0,0) (the first follows because 32 is irrational, and the second follows from the fact that x3−2 is the minimal polynomial of 32 over the rational numbers). □
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