Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it

## Task 4.

Prove that there do not exist a prime number pp and natural numbers aa and n(n2)n(n \geqslant 2) such that

2p+3p=an 2^{p}+3^{p}=a^{n}

Solution

## Solution.

If p=2p=2, then 2p+3p=132^{p}+3^{p}=13 and we would have n=1n=1, which contradicts the premise of the problem.

Assume that p>2p>2 and let 2p+3p=an2^{p}+3^{p}=a^{n} for some natural number n>1n>1.

Since pp is an odd number, we have

an=2p+3p=(2+3)(2p12p23+23p2+3p1) a^{n}=2^{p}+3^{p}=(2+3)\left(2^{p-1}-2^{p-2} \cdot 3+\cdots-2 \cdot 3^{p-2}+3^{p-1}\right)

so aa is divisible by 5. Therefore, the number on the right side is divisible by 5n5^{n}. Since n>1n>1, the number is divisible (at least) by 25, so we conclude that the expression in the second parenthesis on the right side must be divisible by 5.

Given that 32(mod5)3 \equiv-2(\bmod 5), we have:

2p12p23+23p2+3p12p1+2p22++22p2+2p1p2p1(mod5)2^{p-1}-2^{p-2} \cdot 3+\cdots-2 \cdot 3^{p-2}+3^{p-1} \equiv 2^{p-1}+2^{p-2} \cdot 2+\cdots+2 \cdot 2^{p-2}+2^{p-1} \equiv p \cdot 2^{p-1} \quad(\bmod 5).

It follows that pp is divisible by 5, and since pp is a prime number, the only possibility left is p=5p=5. However,

25+35=275=5211 2^{5}+3^{5}=275=5^{2} \cdot 11

which is not a number of the form ana^{n} for n>1n>1.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.