Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 7 / 85 of 300 #1485 of 1964

Problem 1485

National olympiad second round; IMO P1/P4
Number theory Difficulty 7.1 Find the answer imo_shortlist

Find all pairs (p,q)(p,q) of prime numbers which p>qp>q and
(p+q)p+q(pq)pq1(p+q)pq(pq)p+q1\frac{(p+q)^{p+q}(p-q)^{p-q}-1}{(p+q)^{p-q}(p-q)^{p+q}-1}
is an integer.

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

Official solution

To solve the given problem, we need to find all pairs (p,q)(p, q) of prime numbers where p>qp > q such that the expression

(p+q)p+q(pq)pq1(p+q)pq(pq)p+q1 \frac{(p+q)^{p+q}(p-q)^{p-q}-1}{(p+q)^{p-q}(p-q)^{p+q}-1}

is an integer.

### Analysis

Given that pp and qq are primes and p>qp > q, we start by considering small values of pp and qq due to their nature as prime numbers and their role in the expression.

1. **Case q=2q = 2:**

For q=2q = 2, we consider possible values for pp as odd primes greater than 2 due to the requirement p>qp > q.

For p=3p = 3:
(p,q)=(3,2) (p, q) = (3, 2)
The expression becomes:
(3+2)3+2(32)321(3+2)32(32)3+21=551151151=31244=781 \frac{(3+2)^{3+2}(3-2)^{3-2} - 1}{(3+2)^{3-2}(3-2)^{3+2} - 1} = \frac{5^5 \cdot 1 - 1}{5^1 \cdot 1^5 - 1} = \frac{3124}{4} = 781
Since 781 is an integer, (3,2)(3, 2) is a valid pair.

2. Check for other prime pairs:

Test values of other small prime numbers for qq such as 3, or 5, and so on, with pp being the next higher odd prime.

- For q=3q = 3, possible pp values are 5, 7, etc.
- For q=5q = 5, possible pp values are 7, 11, etc.

However, these cases do not yield integer results for the given expression due to the complexity of the formula resulting from larger powers.

3. General Checking:

Given the expression’s complexity, checking larger prime pairs manually shows that for significant values of primes, the computational difficulty of checking if the expression is an integer increases.

The manual checking confirms that (3,2)(3, 2) is the only simple pair where the expression evaluates to an integer.

### Conclusion

Thus, the only pair (p,q)(p, q) such that the given expression is an integer is:
(3,2) \boxed{(3, 2)}

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