Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /27 of 520

Number theory Difficulty 5.0 AIME, harder Find the answer

Determine all pairs (a,b)(a, b) of positive integers for which

a2+ba2b+a and b2aab2+b. a^{2}+b \mid a^{2} b+a \quad \text { and } \quad b^{2}-a \mid a b^{2}+b .

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

From a2+ba2b+aa^{2}+b \mid a^{2} b+a it follows

a2+b(a2b+a)b(a2+b)=ab2 a^{2}+b \mid\left(a^{2} b+a\right)-b\left(a^{2}+b\right)=a-b^{2}

From b2aab2+bb^{2}-a \mid a b^{2}+b it follows

b2a(ab2+b)a(b2a)=b+a2. b^{2}-a \mid\left(a b^{2}+b\right)-a\left(b^{2}-a\right)=b+a^{2} .

We see that a2+bab2a2+ba^{2}+b\left|a-b^{2}\right| a^{2}+b. This means that a2+ba^{2}+b is equal to ab2a-b^{2} up to a sign. Therefore, we have two cases: a2+b=b2aa^{2}+b=b^{2}-a and a2+b=ab2a^{2}+b=a-b^{2}. In the second case, a2+b2=aba^{2}+b^{2}=a-b. But a2aa^{2} \geq a and b2b>bb^{2} \geq b>-b, so this is impossible. Therefore, we must have the first case: a2+b=b2aa^{2}+b=b^{2}-a. This gives a2b2=aba^{2}-b^{2}=-a-b, so (a+b)(ab)=(a+b)(a+b)(a-b)=-(a+b). Since a+ba+b is positive, we can divide by it and get ab=1a-b=-1, so b=a+1b=a+1. All pairs that can satisfy the conditions are thus of the form (a,a+1)(a, a+1) for a positive integer aa.
We check these pairs. We have a2+b=a2+a+1a^{2}+b=a^{2}+a+1 and a2b+a=a2(a+1)+a=a^{2} b+a=a^{2}(a+1)+a= a3+a2+a=a(a2+a+1)a^{3}+a^{2}+a=a\left(a^{2}+a+1\right), so the first divisibility relation is satisfied. Furthermore, b2a=(a+1)2a=a2+a+1b^{2}-a=(a+1)^{2}-a=a^{2}+a+1 and ab2+b=a(a+1)2+(a+1)=a3+2a2+2a+1=a b^{2}+b=a(a+1)^{2}+(a+1)=a^{3}+2 a^{2}+2 a+1= a(a2+a+1)+a2+a+1=(a+1)(a2+a+1)a\left(a^{2}+a+1\right)+a^{2}+a+1=(a+1)\left(a^{2}+a+1\right), so the second divisibility relation is also satisfied. The pairs (a,a+1)(a, a+1) thus satisfy the conditions and are therefore the exact solutions.

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.