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Number theory Difficulty 6.4 National olympiad Prove it

Let nn be a positive integer. Prove that the numbers

11,33,55,,(2n1)2n1 1^{1}, 3^{3}, 5^{5}, \ldots,\left(2^{n}-1\right)^{2^{n}-1}

are in different residue classes modulo 2n2^{n}.

Solution

We prove the requested statement by induction. For n=1n=1, we only look at the number 111^{1}, so the statement is trivially true.

Assume as the induction hypothesis that 11,33,55,,(2n1)2n11^{1}, 3^{3}, 5^{5}, \ldots,\left(2^{n}-1\right)^{2^{n}-1} are in different residue classes modulo 2n2^{n}. First, these numbers are also in different residue classes modulo 2n+12^{n+1}. Since φ(2n+1)=2n\varphi\left(2^{n+1}\right)=2^{n}, it holds that akamod2n+1a^{k} \equiv a^{\ell} \bmod 2^{n+1} if kmod2nk \equiv \ell \bmod 2^{n} and aa is odd.

The additional numbers we consider can be written as (2n+m)2n+m\left(2^{n}+m\right)^{2^{n}+m} with 1m2n11 \leq m \leq 2^{n}-1 and mm odd. If we expand (2n+m)2n+m\left(2^{n}+m\right)^{2^{n}+m} using the binomial theorem, we notice that every term with at least two factors 2n2^{n} is congruent to 0 modulo 2n+12^{n+1}. Therefore, modulo 2n+12^{n+1}, we have

(2n+m)2n+mm2n+m+(2n+m)m2n+m12n+(2n+m2)m2n+m2(2n)2+m2n+m+(2n+m)m2n+m12nmm+(22n+2nm)mm1mm+2nmmmm+2n \begin{aligned} \left(2^{n}+m\right)^{2^{n}+m} & \equiv m^{2^{n}+m}+\left(2^{n}+m\right) m^{2^{n}+m-1} 2^{n}+\binom{2^{n}+m}{2} m^{2^{n}+m-2}\left(2^{n}\right)^{2}+\ldots \\ & \equiv m^{2^{n}+m}+\left(2^{n}+m\right) m^{2^{n}+m-1} 2^{n} \\ & \equiv m^{m}+\left(2^{2 n}+2^{n} m\right) m^{m-1} \\ & \equiv m^{m}+2^{n} \cdot m^{m} \\ & \equiv m^{m}+2^{n} \end{aligned}

where in the last step we used the fact that mmm^{m} is odd. This means that we can write mmm^{m} as 2a+12a+1, and then we find that 2n(2a+1)=2n+1a+2n2nmod2n+12^{n}(2a+1)=2^{n+1}a+2^{n} \equiv 2^{n} \bmod 2^{n+1}.

Since the numbers mmm^{m} from the first group are distinct modulo 2n+12^{n+1}, the numbers from the second group are also distinct modulo 2n+12^{n+1}. From this calculation, we also conclude that the numbers from the first group are different from the numbers from the second group. Suppose that (2n+m)2n+mkkmod2n+1\left(2^{n}+m\right)^{2^{n}+m} \equiv k^{k} \bmod 2^{n+1} with 1k,m2n11 \leq k, m \leq 2^{n}-1, then from this calculation it follows in particular that mmmm+2nkkmod2nm^{m} \equiv m^{m}+2^{n} \equiv k^{k} \bmod 2^{n}. Therefore, by the induction hypothesis, we know that m=km=k. But in that case, it holds that (2n+m)2n+mmm+2n≢mmmod2n+1\left(2^{n}+m\right)^{2^{n}+m} \equiv m^{m}+2^{n} \not \equiv m^{m} \bmod 2^{n+1}.

We conclude that no number from the groups 11,33,55,,(2n1)2n11^{1}, 3^{3}, 5^{5}, \ldots,\left(2^{n}-1\right)^{2^{n}-1} and (2n+1)2n+1,(2n+3)2n+3,,(2n+11)2n+11\left(2^{n}+1\right)^{2^{n}+1},\left(2^{n}+3\right)^{2^{n}+3}, \ldots,\left(2^{n+1}-1\right)^{2^{n+1}-1} has the same residue class as another number from these two groups. This completes the induction step, and by induction, the statement is true for all natural numbers nn.

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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.