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Number theory Difficulty 6.8 National olympiad Prove it IMO

Find all positive integers nn with the following property: for all positive divisors dd of nn, we have that d+1nd+1 \mid n or d+1d+1 is prime.

Solutions — 5

Solution 1

It is easy to verify that n=1,2,4,12n=1,2,4,12 all work. We must show they are the only possibilities. We write n=2kmn=2^{k} m, where kk is a nonnegative integer and mm is odd. Since mnm \mid n, either m+1m+1 is prime or m+1nm+1 \mid n.

In the former case, since m+1m+1 is even it must be 22, so n=2kn=2^{k}. If k3k \geqslant 3, we get a contradiction, since 8n8 \mid n but 9n9 \nmid n. Hence k2k \leqslant 2, so n{1,2,4}n \in\{1,2,4\}.

In the latter case, we have m+12kmm+1 \mid 2^{k} m and m+1m+1 coprime to mm, and hence m+12km+1 \mid 2^{k}. This means that m+1=2jm+1=2^{j} with 2jk2 \leqslant j \leqslant k (since j=1j=1 gives m=1m=1, which was considered earlier).

Then we have 2k+1n2^{k}+1 \nmid n: since 2k+12^{k}+1 is odd, it would have to divide mm but is larger than mm. Hence, by the condition of the problem, 2k+12^{k}+1 is prime. If k=2k=2, jj must be 22 as well, and this gives the solution n=12n=12. Also, 2k1+1n2^{k-1}+1 \nmid n for k>2k>2: since it is odd, it would have to divide mm. However, we have no solutions to 2k1+12j12^{k-1}+1 \mid 2^{j}-1 with jkj \leqslant k: the left-hand side is greater than the right unless j=kj=k, when the left-hand side is just over half the right-hand side.

Since we have 2kn2^{k} \mid n and 2k+1n2^{k}+1 \nmid n, and 2k1n2^{k-1} \mid n and 2k1+1n2^{k-1}+1 \nmid n, we must have 2k+12^{k}+1 and 2k1+12^{k-1}+1 both prime. However, 2a+12^{a}+1 is a multiple of three if aa is odd, so we must have 2k+1=32^{k}+1=3 (impossible as this gives k=1k=1) or 2k1+1=32^{k-1}+1=3, which gives j=k=2j=k=2, whence n=12n=12.

Solution 2

We proceed as in Solution 1 as far as determining that n=2k(2j1)n=2^{k}\left(2^{j}-1\right) with jkj \leqslant k.

Now, we have 2jn2^{j} \mid n but 2j+1n2^{j}+1 \nmid n, as it is odd and does not divide 2j12^{j}-1. Thus 2j+12^{j}+1 is prime. The theory of Fermat primes tells us we must have j=2hj=2^{h} with h>0h>0.

Then 22h12^{2^{h}}-1 is congruent to 33 or 66 (modulo 99) depending on whether hh is odd or even, respectively. In particular it is not divisible by 99, so n=2k(22h1)n=2^{k}\left(2^{2^{h}}-1\right) is not divisible by 99; so we must have k2k \leqslant 2, since if k3k \geqslant 3 then 8n8 \mid n but 9n9 \nmid n with 99 not prime.

Solution 3

Let pp be the smallest integer not dividing nn. Since p1p-1 is a divisor of nn, pp must be a prime. Let 1rp11 \leqslant r \leqslant p-1 be the remainder of nn modulo pp. Since pr<pp-r<p, we have prnp-r \mid n, so we may consider the divisor d=nprd=\frac{n}{p-r}.

Since pnrp \mid n-r, we have pn+prp \mid n+p-r, whence pd+1p \mid d+1. Thus d+1nd+1 \nmid n; so it must be prime. On the other hand, this prime is divisible by pp, so we conclude d+1=pd+1=p, which means that n=(p1)(pr)n=(p-1)(p-r).

Then from p2,p3np-2, p-3 \mid n we get (p2)(p3)2(pr)(p-2)(p-3) \mid 2(p-r), from which we find
(p2)(p3)2(pr)2(p1).(p-2)(p-3) \leqslant 2(p-r) \leqslant 2(p-1) .
Solving this quadratic inequality gives p5p \leqslant 5, which means that n{1,2,4,8,12,16}n \in\{1,2,4,8,12,16\}. Of this set, n=8n=8 and n=16n=16 are not solutions.

Solution 4

We suppose that nn is not 11 or 22.
Since nnn \mid n and n+1nn+1 \nmid n, we know that n+1n+1 is prime. Thus it is odd, so 2n2 \mid n; as n>2n>2, we have n2n\left.\frac{n}{2} \right\rvert\, n and n2+1n\frac{n}{2}+1 \nmid n, so n2+1\frac{n}{2}+1 is prime. Thus it is also odd, so 4n4 \mid n.

We must then have n4+1n\left.\frac{n}{4}+1 \right\rvert\, n or n4+1\frac{n}{4}+1 prime.

In the former case, n44(n4+1)n\frac{n}{4} \left\lvert\, 4\left(\frac{n}{4}+1\right)-n\right., so n4+14\left.\frac{n}{4}+1 \right\rvert\, 4. This means that n=4n=4 or n=12n=12.

In the latter case, n4+1\frac{n}{4}+1 must be odd if n4n \neq 4. Thus we have n=8mn=8 m where 2m+1,4m+1,8m+12 m+1,4 m+1, 8 m+1 are all prime; n=8n=8 does not work, so 3m3 \mid m (otherwise one of those numbers would be divisible by 33). Thus 24n24 \mid n, so 25n25 \mid n as 2525 is not prime.

Now suppose that pp is the least positive integer not dividing nn: as in Solution 3 we know that pp is prime, and what we have done so far shows that p7p \geqslant 7. If p21=(p1)(p+1)p^{2}-1=(p-1)(p+1) is the product of coprime integers less than pp, it divides nn, and p2p^{2} is not prime so also divides nn (a contradiction); p1p-1 and p+1p+1 are even and have no common factor higher than 22, so all odd prime power divisors of their product are less than pp and the only case where p21p^{2}-1 is not a product of coprime integers less than pp is when one of p1p-1 and p+1p+1 is a power of 22, say 2m2^{m} (with m3m \geqslant 3). If p=2m1p=2^{m}-1, then 3p1=4(3×2m21)3 p-1=4\left(3 \times 2^{m-2}-1\right) and 3×2m213 \times 2^{m-2}-1 is an odd integer less than pp, so 3p1n3 p-1 \mid n and so 3pn3 p \mid n. Finally, if p=2m+1p=2^{m}+1, then mm is even and 2p1=2m+1+12 p-1=2^{m+1}+1 is a multiple of 33; the only case where it is a power of 33 is when m=2m=2, but we have m3m \geqslant 3, so 2p12 p-1 is a product of coprime integers less than pp and again we have a contradiction.

Solution 5

As in Solution 4, we deduce that if n>2n>2 then nn must be even. We write n=23krn=2 \cdot 3^{k} \cdot r, where kk is a nonnegative integer and 3r3 \nmid r.

Since rr and 2r2 r are both different and nonzero modulo 33, one of them must be congruent to 22 modulo 33. We'll say that it is ara r, where a{1,2}a \in\{1,2\}.

Since arna r \mid n, we must have that ar+1a r+1 is either prime or a factor of nn. In the first case, ar+1=3a r+1=3 because 3ar+13 \mid a r+1, and so n=23krn=2 \cdot 3^{k} \cdot r, where r=2/ar=2 / a is 11 or 22. Noting that we must have k1k \leqslant 1 (else 9n9 \mid n but 10n10 \nmid n), we can examine cases to deduce that n{2,4,12}n \in\{2,4,12\} are the only possibilities.

Otherwise, ar+1na r+1 \mid n. Since ar+1a r+1 is coprime to rr, we must in fact have that ar+123ka r+1 \mid 2 \cdot 3^{k}, and since 3ar+13 \mid a r+1 by assumption we deduce that k1k \geqslant 1. In particular, 3k+13^{k}+1 is an even number that is at least 44, so is not prime and must divide nn. As it is coprime to 33, we must in fact have 3k+12r3^{k}+1 \mid 2 r.

Let q1q_{1} and q2q_{2} be such that q1(ar+1)=23kq_{1}(a r+1)=2 \cdot 3^{k} and q2(3k+1)=2rq_{2}\left(3^{k}+1\right)=2 r. We have that q1ar<23kq_{1} a r<2 \cdot 3^{k} and q23k<2rq_{2} 3^{k}<2 r, and multiplying these together gives q1q2a<4q_{1} q_{2} a<4.

If a=2a=2 then q1=q2=1q_{1}=q_{2}=1, so 2r+1=23k2 r+1=2 \cdot 3^{k}, which is not possible (considering both sides modulo 22).

If a=1a=1 then rr must be equivalent to 22 modulo 33, so q2(3k+1)=2rq_{2}\left(3^{k}+1\right)=2 r gives that q2q_{2} is equivalent to 11 modulo 33, whence q2=1q_{2}=1. So we deduce that 2r=3k+12 r=3^{k}+1. Thus, we deduce that q1(3k+3)=43kq_{1}\left(3^{k}+3\right)=4 \cdot 3^{k}, which rearranges to give 3k1(4q1)=q13^{k-1}\left(4-q_{1}\right)=q_{1}, whence 3k1q1<43^{k-1} \leqslant q_{1}<4 and so k2k \leqslant 2. We can examine cases to deduce that n=12n=12 is the only possibility.

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