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Number theory Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it

6. I 6 (ROM 4) IMO3{ }^{\mathrm{IMO} 3} Does there exist a natural number nn for which the number
k=0n(2n+12k+1)23k \sum_{k=0}^{n}\binom{2 n+1}{2 k+1} 2^{3 k}
is divisible by 5?

Solution

6. We set x=k=0n(2n+12k+1)23k=18k=0n(2n+12k+1)82k+1,y=k=0n(2n+12k)23k=k=0n(2n+12k)82k \begin{aligned} & x=\sum_{k=0}^{n}\binom{2 n+1}{2 k+1} 2^{3 k}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{8}} \sum_{k=0}^{n}\binom{2 n+1}{2 k+1} \sqrt{8}^{2 k+1}, \\ & y=\sum_{k=0}^{n}\binom{2 n+1}{2 k} 2^{3 k}=\sum_{k=0}^{n}\binom{2 n+1}{2 k} \sqrt{8}^{2 k} \end{aligned} Both xx and yy are positive integers. Also, from the binomial formula we obtain y+x8=i=02n+1(2n+1i)8i=(1+8)2n+1 y+x \sqrt{8}=\sum_{i=0}^{2 n+1}\binom{2 n+1}{i} \sqrt{8}^{i}=(1+\sqrt{8})^{2 n+1} and similarly yx8=(18)2n+1. y-x \sqrt{8}=(1-\sqrt{8})^{2 n+1} . Multiplying these equalities, we get y28x2=(1+8)2n+1(18)2n+1=y^{2}-8 x^{2}=(1+\sqrt{8})^{2 n+1}(1-\sqrt{8})^{2 n+1}= 72n+1-7^{2 n+1}. Reducing modulo 5 gives us 3x2y222n+12(1)n 3 x^{2}-y^{2} \equiv 2^{2 n+1} \equiv 2 \cdot(-1)^{n} Now we see that if xx is divisible by 5, then y2±2(mod5)y^{2} \equiv \pm 2(\bmod 5), which is impossible. Therefore xx is never divisible by 5. Second solution. Another standard way is considering recurrent formulas. If we set xm=k(m2k+1)8k,ym=k(m2k)8k x_{m}=\sum_{k}\binom{m}{2 k+1} 8^{k}, \quad y_{m}=\sum_{k}\binom{m}{2 k} 8^{k} then since (ab)=(a1b)+(a1b1)\binom{a}{b}=\binom{a-1}{b}+\binom{a-1}{b-1}, it follows that xm+1=xm+ymx_{m+1}=x_{m}+y_{m} and ym+1=8xm+ymy_{m+1}=8 x_{m}+y_{m}; therefore xm+1=2xm+7xm1x_{m+1}=2 x_{m}+7 x_{m-1}. We need to show that none of x2n+1x_{2 n+1} are divisible by 5. Considering the sequence {xm}\left\{x_{m}\right\} modulo 5, we get that xm=0,1,2,1,1,4,0,3,1,3,3,2,0,4,3,4,4,1,x_{m}=0,1,2,1,1,4,0,3,1,3,3,2,0,4,3,4,4,1, \ldots Zeros occur in the initial position of blocks of length 6, where each subsequent block is obtained by multiplying the previous one by 3 (modulo 5). Consequently, xmx_{m} is divisible by 5 if and only if mm is a multiple of 6, which cannot happen if m=2n+1m=2 n+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.