Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / Switzerland — Second Round /3 of 9

Switzerland — Second Round, 2022

Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Switzerland

Problem:
Let nn be a positive integer and dd a positive divisor of nn. Show that if
d2+d+1n+1 \frac{d^{2}+d+1}{n+1}
is an integer, then it is equal to 11.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Solution:
Assume that the fraction is an integer, write
d2+d+1n+1=m \frac{d^{2}+d+1}{n+1}=m
Obviously mm is going to be positive, as both nn and dd are also positive. Since dd divides nn, we can write n=kdn=k d. Plugging it into the above equation we get
d2+d+1=(kd+1)m⇔d2+d−kdm=m−1 d^{2}+d+1=(k d+1) m \Leftrightarrow d^{2}+d-k d m=m-1
So dd also divides m−1m-1, we can write m=ld+1m=l d+1 for l∈Z,l≥0l \in \mathbb{Z}, l \geq 0 (l≥1l \geq 1 if and only if m−1>0m-1>0). Plugging that in again, gives us
d2+d+1=(kd+1)(ld+1)=kld2+d(k+l)+1⇔d+1=kld+k+l d^{2}+d+1=(k d+1)(l d+1)=k l d^{2}+d(k+l)+1 \Leftrightarrow d+1=k l d+k+l
As k∈Nk \in \mathbb{N}, we have k≥1k \geq 1. Now assume m≠1m \neq 1. From this it would follow that m−1m-1 is strictly positive, leading to l≥1l \geq 1. Under this assumption we would get kld≥dk l d \geq d, leading to
kdl+k+l≥d+k+l≥d+1+1>d+1=kdl+k+l k d l+k+l \geq d+k+l \geq d+1+1>d+1=k d l+k+l
which is impossible. Contradiction! So we must have l<1⇒l=0l<1 \Rightarrow l=0 leading to m=0⋅d+1=1m=0 \cdot d+1=1 as wanted.

Solution 2

Solution:
Write n=kdn=k d as before, and we obtain that (kd+1)∣(d2+d+1)(k d+1) \mid\left(d^{2}+d+1\right). As a∣ba \mid b implies a∣b−aa \mid b-a we get
kd+1∣d2+d−kd=d⋅(d+1−k) k d+1 \mid d^{2}+d-k d=d \cdot(d+1-k)
As gcd⁡(kd+1,d)=1\gcd(k d+1, d)=1 by Euclid's Algorithm, we also get
kd+1∣d+1−k k d+1 \mid d+1-k
This follows as a∣bca \mid b c and gcd⁡(a,b)=1\operatorname{gcd}(a, b)=1 implies a∣ca \mid c. We do a case distinction on the size of kk
- If k<d+1k<d+1, we have d+1−k>0d+1-k>0 which implies
kd+1≤d+1−k≤d k d+1 \leq d+1-k \leq d
This is impossible
- If k>d+1k>d+1, we instead have k−d−1>0k-d-1>0. As a∣ba \mid b implies a∣−ba \mid-b we also have kd+1∣k−d−1k d+1 \mid k-d-1. We get kd+1≤k−d−1≤kk d+1 \leq k-d-1 \leq k which is also impossible.
- The final case k=d+1k=d+1 gives us n=d(d+1)n=d(d+1). Then n+1=d(d+1)+1=d2+d+1n+1=d(d+1)+1=d^{2}+d+1, which means that the fraction is equal to one

Note that in the first two cases we used a∣ba \mid b implies a≤ba \leq b, if both a,b>0a, b>0. This finishes the proof.

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