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Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let a,ba, b be two positive integers such that
b+1a2+1,a+1b2+1 b+1 \mid a^{2}+1, \quad a+1 \mid b^{2}+1
Prove that a,ba, b are odd numbers.

Solution

Suppose by contrary that one of a,ba, b is even, say aa. So a2+1a^{2}+1 is odd. This means that b+1b+1 must be odd, or equivalently, bb is even. We will prove that this cannot happen.

Indeed, put d=gcd(a+1,b+1)d=\gcd(a+1, b+1) then da+1b2+1d \mid a+1 \mid b^{2}+1, hence db2b=b(b+1)+2bd \mid b^{2}-b = b(b+1) + 2b. From this, we have d2bd \mid 2b and d2(b+1)=2b+2d \mid 2(b+1) = 2b+2 so d2d \mid 2. But a+1,b+1a+1, b+1 are odd numbers so dd odd, which gives d=1d=1.

On the other hand, by assumption a+1a2+b2a+1 \mid a^{2}+b^{2}, b+1a2+b2b+1 \mid a^{2}+b^{2}, we get a2+b2=(a2+1)+(b21)=(a21)+(b2+1)a^{2}+b^{2} = (a^{2}+1) + (b^{2}-1) = (a^{2}-1) + (b^{2}+1) is divisible by both a+1a+1 and b+1b+1. Therefore (a+1)(b+1)a2+b2(a+1)(b+1) \mid a^{2}+b^{2} (since a+1a+1 and b+1b+1 are coprime).

In other words, there exists a positive integer kk such that
a2+b2=k(a+1)(b+1). a^{2}+b^{2}=k(a+1)(b+1) .
We now prove that this equation has no integer solution. Fix a value of nn, assume that this equation has a solution of positive integers. We can choose positive integers x0,y0x_{0}, y_{0} satisfying the equation with the property that the sum x0+y0x_{0}+y_{0} is smallest and x0y0x_{0} \geq y_{0}.

Consider the quadratic equation
X2Xn(y0+1)+y02ny0n=0.() X^{2}-X \cdot n(y_{0}+1)+y_{0}^{2}-n y_{0}-n=0 .\quad (*)
This equation has a solution x0x_{0} so it also has another solution, say x1x_{1}. From Vieta's theorem, we have
x0+x1=n(y0+1),x0x1=y02ny0n x_{0}+x_{1}=n(y_{0}+1), \quad x_{0} x_{1}=y_{0}^{2}-n y_{0}-n
We consider the following cases:

1. If x1<0x_{1}<0, i.e. x11x_{1} \leq -1, then from ()(*) we see that x12x1n(y0+1)+y02ny0n=0x_{1}^{2}-x_{1} \cdot n(y_{0}+1)+ y_{0}^{2}-n y_{0}-n=0 or
0x12+n(y0+1)+y02ny0n=x12+y02>0, 0 \geq x_{1}^{2}+n(y_{0}+1)+y_{0}^{2}-n y_{0}-n = x_{1}^{2}+y_{0}^{2}>0,
which is clearly a contradiction.

2. If x1>0x_{1}>0 then (x1,y0)(x_{1}, y_{0}) is also another solution of ()(*), from the choice of x0x_{0}, we have x1>x0x_{1}>x_{0}. Moreover, since x0x1=y02ny0nx_{0} x_{1}=y_{0}^{2}-n y_{0}-n it follows that x02<x0x1=y02ny0n<y02x_{0}^{2}<x_{0} x_{1}=y_{0}^{2}-n y_{0}-n<y_{0}^{2}, this is also a contradiction because of the inequality x0y0x_{0} \geq y_{0}.

Hence, x1=0x_{1}=0, and in this case y02=n(y0+1)y_{0}^{2}=n(y_{0}+1), which implies that y0+1y02y_{0}+1 \mid y_{0}^{2}. This cannot hold for y02y_{0} \geq 2.

Therefore, we conclude that a,ba, b are odd numbers, this ends the proof.

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