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Mongolian Mathematical Olympiad

Number theory Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Mongolia

Find all sequences a1,a2,…a_1, a_2, \ldots of positive integers such that the expression nan−mam+2am−1n a_n - m a_m + 2 a_m - 1 is divisible by an+am−1a_n + a_m - 1 for all n,m≥1n, m \ge 1.
(Unubold Munkhbat)

Solution

Answer: an=1+c(n−1)a_n = 1 + c(n - 1) for fixed c≥0c \ge 0.
It is clear that the above is a solution, so we prove there are no other solutions.
The expression
n−nan−mam+2am−1an+am−1=n(am−1)+(m−2)am+1an+am−1 n - \frac{n a_n - m a_m + 2 a_m - 1}{a_n + a_m - 1} = \frac{n(a_m - 1) + (m - 2)a_m + 1}{a_n + a_m - 1}
is an integer for all n,m≥1n, m \ge 1. Let c=a2−1≥0c = a_2 - 1 \ge 0. Taking m=2m = 2, we see that cn+1an+c\frac{c n + 1}{a_n + c} is a positive integer.
If c=0c = 0, we have an=1a_n = 1 for all n≥1n \ge 1. So assume c≥1c \ge 1 and suppose that cn+1c n + 1 is a prime. Clearly an+c≥2a_n + c \ge 2, therefore an=1+c(n−1)a_n = 1 + c(n - 1). Finally,
(am−1)−cn(am−1)+(m−2)am+1cn+am−c=am(am−1−c(m−1))cn+am−c (a_m - 1) - c \frac{n(a_m - 1) + (m - 2)a_m + 1}{c n + a_m - c} = \frac{a_m(a_m - 1 - c(m - 1))}{c n + a_m - c}
is an integer for any m≥1m \ge 1. By Dirichlet's theorem, we may assume that nn is sufficiently large, so we must have am=1+c(m−1)a_m = 1 + c(m - 1).

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