Problem:
Let , , and be positive integers such that there are exactly ordered pairs , , for which and are integers. If , find .
Solution
Solution:
Suppose first that . The set of points , , coincides with the interior of the parallelogram with vertices , , and . Its area equals . The Pick formula implies that , where (respectively ) denotes the number of lattice points (i.e., with integer coordinates) in the interior (respectively on the boundary) of the parallelogram. Set , , , , and . The interior points of the side have coordinates , . Thus the number of such lattice points is . Analogously, the number of the interior lattice points on , and equals , and , respectively. Consequently and the first condition of the problem can be written as
Since , it follows that divides and divides . This is possible only for . For each of these values of the numbers , , satisfy (1) and hence or .
Suppose now that . It is easy to see that and . For set . Then and are integers, and . It follows that in this case there are infinitely many pairs satisfying (1), a contradiction.