Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /462 of 520

Number theory Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

29. Does there exist a positive integer mm such that the indeterminate equation
1x+1y+1z+1xyz=mx+y+z\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{y}+\frac{1}{z}+\frac{1}{x y z}=\frac{m}{x+y+z}

has infinitely many positive integer solutions (x,y,z)(x, y, z)?

Solution

29. There exists a positive integer mm. For example, when m=12m=12, the indeterminate equation
1x+1y+1z+1xyz=12x+y+z\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{y}+\frac{1}{z}+\frac{1}{x y z}=\frac{12}{x+y+z}

has infinitely many positive integer solutions.
After simplifying and rearranging equation (8), we get
x2(y+z)+y2(z+x)+z2(x+y)+x+y+z9xyz=0.x^{2}(y+z)+y^{2}(z+x)+z^{2}(x+y)+x+y+z-9 x y z=0 .

Notice that, (x,y,z)=(1,1,1)(x, y, z)=(1,1,1) is a solution to (9). Suppose (a,y,z)(a, y, z) is a solution to (9) satisfying ayza \leqslant y \leqslant z, and consider (9) as a quadratic equation in xx. Then (b,y,z)=(yz+1x,y,z)(b, y, z)=\left(\frac{y z+1}{x}, y, z\right) is also a positive real solution to (9), where yz+1x\frac{y z+1}{x} is obtained by Vieta's formulas, and yz+1xz+1x>z\frac{y z+1}{x} \geqslant z+\frac{1}{x}>z. Since (9) is symmetric in x,y,zx, y, z, (y,z,yz+1x)\left(y, z, \frac{y z+1}{x}\right) is a positive real solution to (9) satisfying yz<yz+1xy \leqslant z<\frac{y z+1}{x}. If we can prove that every term of the sequence {an}\left\{a_{n}\right\} defined below is a positive integer, then using the above derivation, we can find infinitely many positive integer solutions to (9). Thus, when m=12m=12, (8) has infinitely many positive integer solutions.

The sequence {an}\left\{a_{n}\right\} is defined as follows: a0=a1=a2=1,an+2=anan+1+1an1,n=1,2,a_{0}=a_{1}=a_{2}=1, a_{n+2}=\frac{a_{n} a_{n+1}+1}{a_{n-1}}, n=1,2, \cdots.
To prove that every term of {an}\left\{a_{n}\right\} is a positive integer, we can use mathematical induction to prove that the following conclusions hold simultaneously:
(1) For any nNn \in \mathbf{N}^{*}, anNa_{n} \in \mathbf{N}^{*};
(2) an1(anan+1+1),an+1(an1an+1)a_{n-1}\left|\left(a_{n} a_{n+1}+1\right), a_{n+1}\right|\left(a_{n-1} a_{n}+1\right);
(3) an(an+1+an1)a_{n} \mid\left(a_{n+1}+a_{n-1}\right).

The specific derivation process is left to the reader.

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