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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Find the answer

Find the number of quadruples (a,b,c,d)(a, b, c, d) of integers with absolute value at most 5 such that (a2+b2+c2+d2)2=(a+b+c+d)(ab+cd)((ac)2+(bd)2)\left(a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}+d^{2}\right)^{2}=(a+b+c+d)(a-b+c-d)\left((a-c)^{2}+(b-d)^{2}\right)

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

Solution

Let x=a+c,y=ac,w=b+dx=a+c, y=a-c, w=b+d, and z=bdz=b-d. Then (w2+x2+y2+z2)2=4(x2w2)(y2+z2)\left(w^{2}+x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}\right)^{2}=4\left(x^{2}-w^{2}\right)\left(y^{2}+z^{2}\right) and since x2+w2x2w2\left|x^{2}+w^{2}\right| \geq\left|x^{2}-w^{2}\right| it follows that w=0w=0 or y=z=0y=z=0. Now y=z=0y=z=0 implies a=b=c=d=0a=b=c=d=0. Now w=0w=0 gives b=db=-d. Then for equality to hold x2=y2+z2x^{2}=y^{2}+z^{2}. This is equivalent to ac=b2a c=b^{2}, which includes the previous case. It suffices to count the number of triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) that satisfy the equation. When b=0b=0, either aa or cc is zero, which gives 11+111=2111+11-1=21 triples. When b=±1b= \pm 1, we have a=c=1|a|=|c|=1 and a,ca, c have the same sign, for 22=42 \cdot 2=4 triples. When b=±2b= \pm 2, we have (a,c)=(1,4),(2,2),(4,1)(a, c)=(1,4),(2,2),(4,1) or their negatives, for 26=122 \cdot 6=12 triples. When b=±3,±4,±5b= \pm 3, \pm 4, \pm 5, we have a=b=c|a|=|b|=|c| and a,ca, c have the same sign, for 62=126 \cdot 2=12 triples. So in total there are 21+4+12+12=4921+4+12+12=49 solutions.

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Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.