Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /255 of 520

Number theory Difficulty 6.9 National olympiad Prove it

Let k>1 k>1 be an integer. Prove that there exists infinitely many natural numbers such as n n such that: n1n\plus2n\plus\pluskn n|1^n\plus{}2^n\plus{}\dots\plus{}k^n

Solution

To prove that there exist infinitely many natural numbers n n such that n1n+2n++kn n \mid 1^n + 2^n + \dots + k^n , we will use a lemma and consider two cases based on the parity of k k .

### Lemma:
If p p is an odd prime and px+y p \mid x + y , then:
pkxpk+ypk p^k \mid x^{p^k} + y^{p^k}
This lemma can be proven by induction on k k .

### Proof of Lemma:
Base Case:
For k=1 k = 1 , if px+y p \mid x + y , then xy(modp) x \equiv -y \pmod{p} . Thus,
xp+yp(y)p+ypyp+yp0(modp) x^p + y^p \equiv (-y)^p + y^p \equiv -y^p + y^p \equiv 0 \pmod{p}
So, pxp+yp p \mid x^p + y^p .

Inductive Step:
Assume the lemma holds for k=m k = m , i.e., pmxpm+ypm p^m \mid x^{p^m} + y^{p^m} . We need to show it holds for k=m+1 k = m+1 .

Consider xpm+1+ypm+1 x^{p^{m+1}} + y^{p^{m+1}} . We can write:
xpm+1+ypm+1=(xpm)p+(ypm)p x^{p^{m+1}} + y^{p^{m+1}} = (x^{p^m})^p + (y^{p^m})^p
By the inductive hypothesis, pmxpm+ypm p^m \mid x^{p^m} + y^{p^m} . Let xpm+ypm=pmz x^{p^m} + y^{p^m} = p^m z for some integer z z . Then,
(xpm)p+(ypm)p=(pmz)p=pmpzp (x^{p^m})^p + (y^{p^m})^p = (p^m z)^p = p^{mp} z^p
Since p p is an odd prime, mpm+1 mp \geq m+1 . Therefore,
pm+1pmpzp p^{m+1} \mid p^{mp} z^p
Thus, pm+1xpm+1+ypm+1 p^{m+1} \mid x^{p^{m+1}} + y^{p^{m+1}} , completing the induction.

### Case 1: k0(mod2) k \equiv 0 \pmod{2}
Let p p be an odd prime divisor of k+1 k + 1 . Since k k is even, p p is an odd prime. By the lemma, for any a>0 a > 0 ,
paxpa+(kx)pax=1,2,,k12 p^a \mid x^{p^a} + (k - x)^{p^a} \quad \forall x = 1, 2, \ldots, \frac{k-1}{2}
Therefore,
pax=1kxpa p^a \mid \sum_{x=1}^k x^{p^a}
This means n=pa n = p^a for any a>0 a > 0 satisfies the condition.

### Case 2: k1(mod2) k \equiv 1 \pmod{2}
Similarly, let p p be an odd prime divisor of k+1 k + 1 . By the lemma, for any a>0 a > 0 ,
paxpa+(k1x)pa p^a \mid x^{p^a} + (k - 1 - x)^{p^a}
and
pakpa p^a \mid k^{p^a}
Therefore,
pax=1kxpa p^a \mid \sum_{x=1}^k x^{p^a}
This means n=pa n = p^a for any a>0 a > 0 satisfies the condition.

Thus, in both cases, we have shown that there exist infinitely many natural numbers n n such that n1n+2n++kn n \mid 1^n + 2^n + \dots + k^n .

\blacksquare

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.