AlgebraDifficulty 6.1National OlympiadProve itUnited States
Problem: Let a, b, c be positive integers. All the roots of each of the quadratics ax2+bx+c,ax2+bx−c,ax2−bx+c,ax2−bx−c are integers. Over all triples (a,b,c), find the triple with the third smallest value of a+b+c.
Solution
Solution: The quadratic formula yields that the answers to these four quadratics are 2a±b±b2±4ac. Given that all eight of these expressions are integers, we can add or subtract appropriate pairs to get that ab and ab2±4ac are integers. Let b′=ab and c′=a4c. We can rewrite the expressions to get that b′ and b′2±c′ are positive integers, which also tells us that c′ is a positive integer. Let b′2+c′=n2, b′2−c′=m2.
Notice that a+b+c=a(1+b′+4c′), so to find the third smallest value of a+b+c, we first find small solutions to (b′,c′). To do this, we find triples (m,b′,n) such that m2,b′2,n2 form an arithmetic sequence. Because odd squares are 1mod4 and even squares are 0mod4, if any of these three terms is odd, then all three terms must be odd. By dividing these terms by the largest possible power of 2 then applying the same logic, we can extend our result to conclude that v2(m)=v2(b′)=v2(n). Thus, we only need to look at (m,b′,n) all odd, then multiply them by powers of 2 to get even solutions.
We then plug in b′=3,5,7,9, and find that out of these options, only (n,b′,m)=(1,5,7) works, giving (b′,c′)=(5,24),a+b+c=12a. Multiplying by 2 yields that (n,b′,m)=(2,10,14) also works, giving (b′,c′)=(10,96),a+b+c=35a. For 11≤b≤17, we can check that m=b+2 fails to give an integer n. For 11≤b≤17,m=b+2,a+b+c=a(1+b′+4c′)≥a(1+11+4152−112)=38a, the smallest possible value of which is greater than 12a with a=1,12a with a=2, and 35a with a=1. Thus, it cannot correspond to the solution with the third smallest a+b+c. For b≥19, a+b+c=a(1+19+4212+192)=40a, which, similar as before, can't correspond to the solution with the third smallest a+b+c.
Thus the smallest solution is (a,b′,c′)=(1,5,24),(a,b,c)=(1,5,6), the second smallest solution is (a,b′,c′)=(2,5,24),(a,b,c)=(2,10,12), and the third smallest solution that the problem asks for is (a,b′,c′)=(1,10,96),(a,b,c)=(1,10,24).
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