Let be integers greater than 1, and let be positive integers not greater than . Prove that there exist positive integers not greater than , such that
where denotes the greatest common divisor of .
Let be integers greater than 1, and let be positive integers not greater than . Prove that there exist positive integers not greater than , such that
where denotes the greatest common divisor of .
Suppose without loss of generality that is the smallest of the . If , then the problem is simple: either all the are equal, or and for some . In the first case, we can take (say) , and the rest of the can be arbitrary, and we have
In the second case, we can take , and the rest of the arbitrary, and again
So from now on we can suppose that .
Now, let us suppose the desired do not exist, and seek a contradiction. Then, for any choice of , we have
Also, we have
Thus there are at most possible values for the greatest common divisor. However, there are choices for the -tuple . Then, by the pigeonhole principle, there are two -tuples that yield the same values for the greatest common divisor, say . But since , for each there can be at most one choice of such that is divisible by - and therefore there can be at most one -tuple yielding as the greatest common divisor. This is the desired contradiction.