Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /28 of 69

Number theory Difficulty 5.8 AIME, harder Prove it Mongolia

Find all natural numbers nn, mm that satisfy conditions: (n+m+1)2mn(n + m + 1)|2mn and (n+m1)(n2+m21)(n + m - 1)|(n^2 + m^2 - 1).

Solution

Note that (n+m1)(n+m1)2+2(n+m1)=(n+m1)2+2mn(n + m - 1)|(n + m - 1)^2 + 2(n + m - 1) = (n + m - 1)^2 + 2mn. By combining it with given condition we get (n+m1)2mn(n + m - 1)|2mn. Since none of (n+m1)(n + m - 1) and (n+m+1)(n + m + 1) equals to 22, greatest common divisor (GCD) of these numbers is not greater than 22.
If GCD=2GCD = 2 then 12(n+m1)(n+m+1)2mn\frac{1}{2}(n + m - 1)(n + m + 1)|2mn. Also if GCD=1GCD = 1 then (n+m1)(n+m+1)2mn(n + m - 1)(n + m + 1)|2mn. From here we deduce that 2mn02mn \neq 0, 12(n+m1)(n+m+1)2mn\frac{1}{2}(n + m - 1)(n + m + 1) \le 2mn and (n+m)214mn(n+m)21(n + m)^2 - 1 \le 4mn \Rightarrow (n + m)^2 \le 1 ()(*)
Since n,mn, m symmetrical, we may assume nmn \ge m. Considering the ()(*), we get either n=mn = m or n=m+1n = m + 1

a. Let n=mn = m. By the given condition 2m+12m22m + 1|2m^2 and (2m+1,m)=1(2m + 1, m) = 1, (2m+1,2)=1(2m + 1, 2) = 1. It is obvious that there are no such numbers.

b. Let n=m+1n = m + 1. By the given conditions
{(n+m+1)2mn(n+m1)n2+m21{2(m+1)2mn(m+1)2m2mn(m+1) \begin{cases} (n + m + 1)|2mn \\ (n + m - 1)|n^2 + m^2 - 1 \end{cases} \Leftrightarrow \begin{cases} 2(m + 1)|2mn(m + 1) \\ 2m|2mn(m + 1) \end{cases}
and we conclude that any natural mm satisfies the conditions.

Thus (n,m)(n, m) is pair of successive natural numbers.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.