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Algebra Difficulty 7.8 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Germany

Problem:

Let mm and nn be two positive integers. Prove that the integer m2+4m2nm^{2} + \left\lceil \frac{4 m^{2}}{n} \right\rceil is not a perfect square.

(Here x\lceil x \rceil denotes the smallest integer that is not smaller than xx.)

Solution

Solution:

For an indirect proof we assume that there exists a kNk \in \mathbb{N} with m2+4m2n=(m+k)2m^{2} + \left\lceil \frac{4 m^{2}}{n} \right\rceil = (m + k)^{2}, i.e. (2m)2n=(2m+k)k\left\lceil \frac{(2m)^{2}}{n} \right\rceil = (2m + k)k. Obviously k1k \geq 1. Thus the equation c2n=(c+k)k\left\lceil \frac{c^{2}}{n} \right\rceil = (c + k)k (1) has a positive integer solution (c,k)(c, k) with even cc. Without paying attention to the parity of cc, we consider such a solution of (1) with minimal kk.

From c2n>c2n1=ck+k21ck\frac{c^{2}}{n} > \left\lceil \frac{c^{2}}{n} \right\rceil - 1 = c k + k^{2} - 1 \geq c k and (ck)(c+k)n<c2nc2n=(c+k)k\frac{(c - k)(c + k)}{n} < \frac{c^{2}}{n} \leq \left\lceil \frac{c^{2}}{n} \right\rceil = (c + k)k we obtain c>nk>nkc > n k > n - k, so that c=kn+rc = k n + r holds with a suitable 0<r<k0 < r < k.

Substituting this into (1) gives c2n=(nk+r)2n=k2n+2kr+r2n\left\lceil \frac{c^{2}}{n} \right\rceil = \left\lceil \frac{(n k + r)^{2}}{n} \right\rceil = k^{2} n + 2 k r + \left\lceil \frac{r^{2}}{n} \right\rceil and (c+k)k=(kn+r+k)k=k2n+2kr+k(kr)(c + k)k = (k n + r + k)k = k^{2} n + 2 k r + k(k - r), so that r2n=k(kr)\left\lceil \frac{r^{2}}{n} \right\rceil = k(k - r) (2) follows.

This yields another positive integer solution of (1) with c=rc' = r and k=kr<kk' = k - r < k, which contradicts the minimality of kk.

Variant:

Let m2+4m2n=c2m^{2} + \left\lceil \frac{4 m^{2}}{n} \right\rceil = c^{2} for a positive integer c>mc > m, from which follows c21<m2+4m2nc2c^{2} - 1 < m^{2} + \frac{4 m^{2}}{n} \leq c^{2} and from this 0c2nm2(n+4)<n0 \leq c^{2} n - m^{2}(n + 4) < n (3).

We substitute d=c2nm2(n+4)d = c^{2} n - m^{2}(n + 4), x=c+mx = c + m and y=cmy = c - m, obtain c=x+y2c = \frac{x + y}{2} as well as m=xy2m = \frac{x - y}{2} and thereby rewrite (3):

(x+y2)2n(xy2)2(n+4)=d\left( \frac{x + y}{2} \right)^{2} n - \left( \frac{x - y}{2} \right)^{2}(n + 4) = d or x2(n+2)xy+y2+d=0x^{2} - (n + 2) x y + y^{2} + d = 0 with 0d<n0 \leq d < n.

For fixed nn and dd we choose an integer solution pair (x,y)(x, y) for which x+yx + y is minimal. Because of the symmetry of (4) we may assume xy1x \geq y \geq 1. As above, another solution (z,y)(z, y) can be found here as well, for which z<xz < x — contradiction!

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from de; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.