Number theoryDifficulty 5.8AIME, harderProve itIran
p=13 is a prime number in the form of 8k+5 for some natural number k, and 39 is a non-residue modulo p. Prove that equation x14+x24+x34+x44≡0(modp) has a solution in the set of integers such that p∤x1x2x3x4.
Solution
Note that 1≤xi≤p−1∑(1−(x14+x24+x34+x44)p−1)=p(p−1)4−(p−1)44p−1∣θi;∑θi=p−1∑A(p−1θ1,θ2,θ3,θ4)p.
If a≡p(2p−1)! and b≡p(4p−1)!21, then A≡p−2+12ab−b2; therefore, −A+1≡pb2−12ab+3≡p(b−6a)2−36a2+3≡p(b−6a)2+39. And according to the assumption, (p−39)=−1, which completes the proof.
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.