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Czech-Polish-Slovak Match

Number theory Difficulty 5.4 AIME, harder Prove it Czech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match

Prove that for every non-negative integer nn there exist integers x,y,zx, y, z with gcd⁡(x,y,z)=1\gcd(x, y, z) = 1, such that
x2+y2+z2=32n. x^2 + y^2 + z^2 = 3^{2n}.

Solution

We will use the following algebraic formula:
(x2+y2+z2)2=(x2+y2−z2)2+(2xz)2+(2yz)2. (x^2 + y^2 + z^2)^2 = (x^2 + y^2 - z^2)^2 + (2xz)^2 + (2yz)^2.
This means that if a positive integer can be represented as a sum of 3 squares, then so can its square. Consequently, if we put
(x0,y0,z0)=(1,1,1)(xn+1,yn+1,zn+1)=(xn2+yn2−zn2,2xnzn,2ynzn), \begin{aligned} (x_0, y_0, z_0) &= (1, 1, 1) \\ (x_{n+1}, y_{n+1}, z_{n+1}) &= (x_n^2 + y_n^2 - z_n^2, 2x_nz_n, 2y_nz_n), \end{aligned}
then by a trivial induction we obtain that xn2+yn2+zn2=32nx_n^2 + y_n^2 + z_n^2 = 3^{2n}.
It remains to show that gcd⁡(xn,yn,zn)=1\gcd(x_n, y_n, z_n) = 1 for all nn and we proceed by induction.
Suppose gcd⁡(xn,yn,zn)=1\gcd(x_n, y_n, z_n) = 1, but xn+1,yn+1,zn+1x_{n+1}, y_{n+1}, z_{n+1} have some common prime divisor pp. Observe that since 32n3^{2n} is odd, but 2xnzn2x_nz_n and 2ynzn2y_nz_n are even, we have that xn2+yn2−zn2x_n^2 + y_n^2 - z_n^2 is odd, so p≠2p \ne 2. Hence p∣xnznp|x_nz_n and p∣ynznp|y_nz_n. Then either p∣znp|z_n, or p∣xnp|x_n and p∣ynp|y_n. In the latter case we could infer from p∣xn2+yn2−zn2p|x_n^2 + y_n^2 - z_n^2 that in fact also p∣znp|z_n, which contradicts the assumption that gcd⁡(xn,yn,zn)=1\gcd(x_n, y_n, z_n) = 1. Hence we are left with the first case: p∣znp|z_n.
Since p∣xn2+yn2−zn2p|x_n^2 + y_n^2 - z_n^2 and p∣znp|z_n, we also have that p∣xn2+yn2+zn2=32np|x_n^2 + y_n^2 + z_n^2 = 3^{2n}. Hence in fact p=3p = 3. But the only quadratic residues modulo 3 are 0 and 1, so the two possibilities for a sum of three squares to be divisible by 3 is that either all or none of them is divisible by 3. The former case is excluded by the assumption that gcd⁡(xn,yn,zn)=1\gcd(x_n, y_n, z_n) = 1 and the latter by p∣znp|z_n.
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