Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /24 of 29

Number theory Difficulty 6.0 National Olympiad Prove it Croatia

Find at least one integer aa such that for the polynomial P(x)=x5+axP(x) = x^5 + a x the statement
“if nP(k)P(l)n \mid P(k) - P(l) then nkln \mid k - l, for all k,lZk, l \in \mathbb{Z}
holds only for finitely many positive integers nn, including n=95n = 95.

Solution

One such number is a=954a = -95^4.
For that aa we have P(95)=P(0)=0P(95) = P(0) = 0, so nn divides P(95)P(0)P(95) - P(0) for every positive integer nn, and nn does not divide 95095 - 0 if nn is not a divisor of 9595. Therefore the statement is valid for only finitely many positive integers nn.

Let us show that the statement is valid for n=95n = 95. Let k,lZk, l \in \mathbb{Z} such that 95P(k)P(l)95 \mid P(k) - P(l). Since 95a95 \mid a we conclude that 95k5l595 \mid k^5 - l^5. We want to show that 95kl95 \mid k - l, so it is sufficient to prove that 5kl5 \mid k - l and 19kl19 \mid k - l.

By Fermat's little theorem we have k5k(mod5)k^5 \equiv k \pmod{5} and l5l(mod5)l^5 \equiv l \pmod{5}, so it follows that 5kl5 \mid k - l because 5k5l55 \mid k^5 - l^5.

Also by Fermat's little theorem, if kk and 1919 are relatively prime then k181(mod19)k^{18} \equiv 1 \pmod{19}, so k54=(k18)31(mod19)k^{54} = (k^{18})^3 \equiv 1 \pmod{19}. Therefore k55k(mod19)k^{55} \equiv k \pmod{19} whether kk is divisible by 1919 or not. Analogously l55l(mod19)l^{55} \equiv l \pmod{19}. We conclude that k(k5)11(l5)11l(mod19)k \equiv (k^5)^{11} \equiv (l^5)^{11} \equiv l \pmod{19}, i.e. 19kl19 \mid k - l, which is what we had to prove.

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.