Problem:
Let be the set of positive integers.
Determine all functions with the property that for all positive integers and the following holds: .
Problem:
Let be the set of positive integers.
Determine all functions with the property that for all positive integers and the following holds: .
Solution:
For an arbitrary positive integer we choose such that holds. Then it follows that and . Since is divisible by , must also be divisible by . Thus we have , which means for all .
In particular this yields , hence .
We further assume that there exists an with . With we obtain , but on the other hand we then have , so that cannot divide - contradiction! Hence holds, and combined with the above it follows that for all .
Substituting confirms via that this function is indeed - therefore - the only solution.