Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Find the answer

Let nn be a positive integer. Determine, in terms of nn, the greatest integer which divides every number of the form p+1p+1, where p2mod3p \equiv 2 \bmod 3 is a prime number which does not divide nn.

## Proposed by Bulgaria

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Let kk be the greatest such integer. We will show that k=3k=3 when nn is odd and k=6k=6 when nn is even.

We will say that a number pp is nice if pp is a prime number of the form 2mod32 \bmod 3 which does not divide NN.

Note first that if 3p+13 \mid p+1 for every nice number pp and so kk is a multiple of 3.
If nn is odd, then p=2p=2 is nice, so we must have k3k \mid 3. From the previous paragraph we get that k=3k=3.

If nn is even, then p=2p=2 is not nice, therefore every nice pp is of the form 5mod65 \bmod 6. So in this case 6p+16 \mid p+1 for every nice number pp.

It remains to show that (if nn is even then)
(i) There is a nice pp such that 4p+14 \nmid p+1.
(ii) There is a nice pp such that 9p+19 \nmid p+1.
(iii) There is a nice pp such that for every prime q2,3q \neq 2,3 we have that qp+1q \nmid p+1.

For (i), by Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions, there are infinitely many primes of the form p5mod12p \equiv 5 \bmod 12. Any one of them which is larger than nn will do.

For (ii), by Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions, there are infinitely many primes of the form p2mod9p \equiv 2 \bmod 9. Any one of them which is larger than nn will do.

For (iii), by Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions, there are infinitely many primes of the form p2mod3qp \equiv 2 \bmod 3 q. Any one of them which is larger than nn will do.

Remark. In the proposal, the statement of Dirichlet's theorem on Arithmetic Progressions was given as known. Even though this makes the problem fairer we omitted it because we feel that it also makes it easier.

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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.