December 27, 2024 Arindam Bhattacharyya

Number Theory PSet

Orders and Cyclotomic polynomials

Problem 1 Let p be a prime and n a integer. Consider the map f ∶ {0, 1, ..., p − 1} → {0, 1, ..., p − 1} defined
by f (x) = xn (mod p). Determine the size of the image of f .

Problem 2 (Folklore) Find all positive integers n such that n ∣ 2n − 1.

Problem 3 Find all positive integers n such that n ∣ 2n−1 + 1.

Problem 4 (USA TST 2008 D4 P2) Prove that n7 + 7 is never a perfect square.

Problem 5 (2006 N5) Show that

x7 − 1
= y5 − 1
x−1
has no integer solutions.

Problem 6 (INMO 2024 P3) Let p be an odd prime and a, b, c be integers so that the integers

a2023 + b2023 , b2024 + c2024 , a2025 + c2025

are divisible by p. Prove that p divides each of a, b, c.

Problem 7 Let a be an integer and k a positive integer. Show that there are infinitely many primes p ≡ 1
(mod k) such that a is a perfect k th power modulo p.
n n−1
Problem 8 (WOOT) Let n be a positive integer. Prove that the number 22 + 22 + 1 can expressed as
the product of no less than n prime factors (not necessarily different).

Problem 9 (Online Math Open 2013) Find all positive integers 1 ≤ m ≤ 300 such that for any integer
n ≥ 2, if 2013m divides nn − 1 then 2013m divides n − 1.

Problem 10 Prove √ that there exist infinitely many positive integers n such that all prime divisors of n2 +n+1
are not greater than n.

Problem 11 (Pravega Enumeration Finals) Let k be a positive integer, and let ϵ be a positive real
number. Prove that there are infinitely many positive integers n, such that the largest prime factor of nk + 1
is less than nϵ .

νp and LTE
Problem
√ 12 (BAMO 2018 P4) Let a, b, c be positive integers. Show that if a/b + b/c + c/a is an integer,
3
then abc is an integer as well.
(a+1)n −an
Problem 13 (China TST 2006) Find all positive integer pairs (a, n) such that n
is an integer.

Problem 14 (IMO 2019 P4) Find all pairs (k, n) of positive integers such that

k! = (2n − 1)(2n − 2)(2n − 4)⋯(2n − 2n−1 ).

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December 27, 2024 Arindam Bhattacharyya

Problem 15 (APMO 2017 P4) Call a rational number r [i]powerful[/i] if r can be expressed in the form
pk
for some relatively prime positive integers p, q and some integer k > 1. Let a, b, c be positive rational
q
numbers such that abc = 1. Suppose there exist positive integers x, y, z such that ax + by + cz is an integer.
Prove that a, b, c are all [i]powerful[/i].

Problem 16 (India TST 2019) Show that there do not exist natural numbers a1 , a2 , . . . , a2018 such that
the numbers
(a1 )2018 + a2 , (a2 )2018 + a3 , . . . , (a2018 )2018 + a1
are all powers of 5.

Bounding and Euclidean algorithm

Problem 17 (2012 N2) Find all integers 0 < x ≤ y ≤ z satisfying

x3 (y 3 + z 3 ) = 2012(xyz + 2).

Problem 18 (2010 N1) Find the last positive integer n for which there exists a set {s1 < s2 < ... < sn }
consisting of n distinct positive integers satisfying
1 1 1 51
(1 − ) (1 − ) ⋯ (1 − ) = .
s1 s2 sn 2010
Problem 19 (INMO 2019 P3) Let m, n be distinct positive integers. Prove that

gcd(m, n) + gcd(m + 1, n + 1) + gcd(m + 2, n + 2) ≤ 2∣m − n∣ + 1.

Further, determine when equality holds.

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Problem 20 (IMO 1997 P5) Find all pairs (a, b) of positive integers satisfying ab = ba .

Problem 21 (2012 N2) Solve over the positive integers : a3 + b3 + c3 = (abc)2 .

Problem 22 (STEMS 2020) Find the number of solutions (in N) to the following equation:

ϕ(n4 + 1) = 8n

Problem 23 (USAMO 2023 P4) Find all pairs of primes (p, q) for which p − q and pq − q are both perfect
squares.

Problem 24 (2009 N3) Let f ∶ N → N be a nonconstant function such that a − b is a divisor of f (a) − f (b).
Prove that the set {p ∣ p is a prime , p ∣ f (c) for some c} is infinite.

Problem 25 (2022 N2) Find all positive integers n > 2 such that

n! ∣ ∏ (p + q)
p<q≤n,p,q primes

Problem 26 Let n ≥ 2 be a positive integer with divisors 1 = d1 < d2 < ⋯ < dk = n. Prove that d1 d2 + d2 d3 +
+ dk−1 dk is always less than n2 , and determine when it is a divisor of n2 .

Problem 27 (USAMO 1995 P4) Suppose q0 , q1 , q2 , . . . is an infinite sequence of integers satisfying the
following two conditions:
1. m − n divides qm − qn for m > n ≥ 0,
2. there is a polynomial P such that ∣qn ∣ < P (n) for all n
Prove that there is a polynomial Q such that qn = Q(n) for all n.

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December 27, 2024 Arindam Bhattacharyya

Construction in NT
Problem 28 (USAMO 2017 P1) Prove that there exists infinitely many pairs of relatively prime a, b > 1
such that a + b ∣ ab + ba .

Problem 29 (India TST 2017 D1 P2) Define a sequence of integers a0 = m, a1 = n and ak+1 = 4ak −
5ak−1 for all k ≥ 1. Suppose p > 5 is a prime with p ≡ 1 (mod 4). Prove that it is possible to choose m, n
such that p ∤ ak for any k ≥ 0.

Problem 30 (2014 N4) Let n > 1 be a given integer. Prove that infinitely many terms of the sequence
(ak )k≥1 , defined by
nk
ak = ⌊ ⌋ ,
k
are odd.

Problem 31 (2006 N7) For all positive integers n, show that there exists a positive integer m such that n
divides 2m + m.

Problem 32 (USA TST 2007 D2 P4) Determine whether or not there exist positive integers a and b
such that a does not divide bn − n for all positive integers n

Problem 33 (IMO 2003 P6) Let p be a prime number. Prove that there exists a prime number q such
that for every integer n, the number np − p is not divisible by q.