Number Theory

Orders and νp
Let p be a prime and a ∈ Z be coprime to p.

Definition 1 (Order) The order of a is defined to be the smallest positive integer m such that am ≡ 1 (mod p).
We denote this by ordp (a) = m.
Note that by Fermat’s little theorem, the order always exists and is at most p − 1. In fact, one can easily show that
the order always divides p − 1.

Exercise 1 Suppose n is such that p ∣ n2 + 1. Show that ordp (n) = 4 if p is odd.

When working modulo a composite number n, we replace p − 1 by ϕ(n), the Euler totient function.
We have defined ordp (a) for any integer a co prime to a prime p. A natural question is : What values can ordp (a)
take? How often does it take those values?
We’ve already established that ordp (a) ∣ p − 1. So the order of any number is a divisor of p − 1. Turns out, the
converse is also true!
Definition 2 (Primitive roots) A positive integer g is called a primitive root modulo p if ordp (g) = p − 1.

Primitive roots exist modulo every prime!

Exercise 2 (Theoretical) Can you prove the above statement?
The point of this is that every non-zero number modulo a prime p can be uniquely expressed as g α for α = {0, ⋯p−2}.

Example 1 Suppose p = 7. Then consider powers of 3 modulo 7.

30 ≡ 1, 31 ≡ 3

32 ≡ 2, 33 ≡ 6
34 ≡ 4, 35 ≡ 5
Thus, the powers of 3 cover all possible non-zero residues modulo 7. 3 is a primitive root mod 7. Note that 5 is also
a primitive root.
Let’s move on to the problems

Problems
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 integers n such that n ∣ 2n − 1.

√
Problem 3 (BAMO 2018/4) Let a, b, c be positive integers. Show that if a/b + b/c + c/a is an integer, then
3
abc
is an integer as well.

Problem 4 (Shades of LTE) Let a ≅ 1 (mod p). Find an explicit formula for vp (an − 1) − vp (a − 1) in terms of n.
Problem 5 (1998 N5) Determine all positive integers n for which there exists an integer m such that 2n − 1 is a
divisor of m2 + 9.

Problem 6 (India TST 2017) 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 7 (IMO 2019/4) Find all pairs (k, n) of positive integers such that

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

Problem 8 (2015 N3) Let m and n be positive integers such that m > n. Define xk = m+k n+k
for k = 1, 2, . . . , n + 1.
Prove that if all the numbers x1 , x2 , . . . , xn+1 are integers, then x1 x2 . . . xn+1 − 1 is divisible by an odd prime.

Problem 9 (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

Problem 10 Find all surjective functions f ∶ Z → Z such that

f (y + xf (y)) = f (x)f (y)

Hint: Look at the preimage of 2.

Problem 11 (2006 N5) Show that

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

Problem 12 (IMO 2003/6) 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.

Problem 13 (Online Math Open) 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 14 Let a be a natural number, a > 3. Prove there is an infinity of numbers n, for which a + n∣an + 1.
Bounding
This will be about bounding problems (mostly NT). A key idea in these would be to show that something is “too
big” or “too small” to be true. Here’s an example:
Example 2 Find all integers 0 < x ≤ y ≤ z satisfying

x3 (y 3 + z 3 ) = 2012(xyz + 2).
Solution
Looking at the equation modulo x, we get that x ∣ 4024. Otoh, looking at the prime p = 503 we get that x = 1, 2, 4 or
8. Looking at both sides in v2 (considering highest power of 2 dividing both sides) we get that x = 1 or 2. We also
have 503 ∣ y + z.
Let y + z = 503k. We have kx3 (y 2 − yz + z 2 ) = 4(xyz + 2). The point is that the RHS is degree 5, so we expect it to
be larger than the LHS. To formalize this, note that y 2 + z 2 − yz ≥ yz Ô⇒ 4(xyz + 2) ≥ kx3 yz. Lets just very rough
bounding. Suppose xyz is atleast 2, then 8xyz ≥ 4(xyz + 2) ≥ kx3 yz Ô⇒ 8 ≥ kx2 . If x = 2, we must have k = 1 or 2.
if x = 1, we have 4(yz + 2) ≥ kyz. Again barring yz = 1, 2, this implies that k ≤ 3. Check cases manually to finish.
another example,
Example 3 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
Solution
Since si is atleast i + 1, we get that n is atleast 39. One of the si ’s must have a 67 is its prime factorization. With
some probing, we get that n = 39 actually works with the set {2, 3, ..., 33, 35, 36, .., 40, 67}.

Problems
Problem 15 Find all pairs of primes (p, q) for which p − q and pq − q are both perfect squares.

Problem 16 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 .
2
Problem 17 Find all pairs (a, b) of positive integers satisfying ab = ba .

Problem 18 Find all pairs of prime numbers (p, q) for which p2 ∣ q 3 + 1 and q 2 ∣ p6 − 1.

Problem 19 Solve over the positive integers : a3 + b3 + c3 = (abc)2 .

Problem 20 (USAMO 1995/4) 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.

Problem 21 (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 22 (INMO 2023/4) Let N denote the set of all positive integers. Find all real numbers c for which there
exists a function f ∶ N → N satisfying: for any x, a ∈ N, the quantity f (x+a)−f
a
(x)
is an integer if and only if a = 1; for
all x ∈ N, we have ∣f (x) − cx∣ < 2023.

Problem 23 (India TST 2019) Determine all non-constant monic polynomials f (x) with integer coefficients for
which there exists a natural number M such that for all n ≥ M , f (n) divides f (2n ) − 2f (n)
Problem 24 (2018 A3, India TST 2019) Given any set S of positive integers, show that at least one of the
following two assertions holds:
(1) There exist distinct finite subsets F and G of S such that ∑x∈F 1/x = ∑x∈G 1/x;
(2) There exists a positive rational number r < 1 such that ∑x∈F 1/x ≠ r for all finite subsets F of S.

Problem 25 (2018 N6, India TST 2019) Let f ∶ {1, 2, 3, . . . } → {2, 3, . . . } be a function such that f (m+n)∣f (m)+
f (n) for all pairs m, n of positive integers. Prove that there exists a positive integer c > 1 which divides all values of
f.

Problem 26 (STEMS 2019) Let P (x) = an xn + an−1 xn−1 + . . . + a1 x + a0 be a polynomial such that a0 , a1 , . . . , an
are all positive integers. Let P1 (x) = P (x) and for each k > 1 define the polynomial Pk (x) = P (Pk−1 (x)). Does there
exist an M > 0 such that for all m ≥ M we have m∣PP (m) (m)?

Problem 27 (USAMO 2015/5) Let a, b, c, d, e be distinct positive integers such that a4 + b4 = c4 + d4 = e5 . Show
that ac + bd is a composite number.
Lifting the exponent
This section is basically the following (extremely useful) lemma.

Lemma 1 (Lifting the exponent) Let p be an odd prime. Suppose a, b ∈ Z and a ≡ b ≡/ 0 (mod p), then

νp (an − bn ) = νp (a − b) + νp (n)
For p = 2,
νp [2](an − bn ) = νp [2](a2 − b2 ) + νp [2](n) − 1
Problems
Problem 28 (China TST 2018) Let p be a prime and k be a positive integer. Set S contains all positive integers
a satisfying 1 ≤ a ≤ p − 1, and there exists positive integer x such that xk ≡ a (mod p). Suppose that 3 ≤ ∣S∣ ≤ p − 2.
Prove that the elements of S, when arranged in increasing order, does not form an arithmetic progression.

Problem 29 (Romania TST 2008) Let a and b be positive integers such that 2a − 1 divides 3b − 1. Prove that
either a = 1 or b is even.

Problem 30 (Taiwan TST) Let m and n be relatively prime positive integers. Prove that
ϕ(5m − 1) ≠ 5n − 1.

Problem 31 (Italy TST 2003) Solve 2a + pb = 19a where p is a prime number, and a, b are positive integers.

Problem 32 (2002 N3) Let p1 , . . . , pn be distinct primes greater than 3. Prove that 2p1 ...pn + 1 has at least 4n
dvisors.

Problem 33 (2000 N4) Find all triples (a, m, n) of positive integers for which am + 1 ∣ (a + 1)n .

Problem 34 (China TST Quiz 2005; Shortlist 1997) Let b, m, n be positive integers such that b > 1 and m ≠ n.
Prove that if bm − 1 and bn − 1 have the same prime divisors then b + 1 is a power of 2.

Problem 35 (Japan 2011) Find all a, p, q, r, s ∈ N such that

as − 1 = (ap − 1)(aq − 1)(ar − 1)

Problem 36 (IMOC 2017 N4) Find all integers n such that nn−1 − 1 is square-free.

Problem 37 (USATST 2008) Prove that n7 + 7 is never a perfect square.

Problem 38 (2008 N1) Let n be a positive integer and let p be a prime number. Prove that if a, b, c are integers
(not necessarily positive) satisfying the equations

an + pb = bn + pc = cn + pa

then a = b = c.

Problem 39 (IMO 2022 P5) Find all triples (a, b, p) of positive integers with p prime and

ap = b! + p

Problem 40 (India TST 2018) For a natural number k > 1, define Sk to be the set of all triplets (n, a, b) of
natural numbers, with n odd and gcd(a, b) = 1, such that a + b = k and n divides an + bn . Find all values of k for
which Sk is finite.

Problem 41 (ELMO SL 2014 N4) Let N denote the set of positive integers. Find all functions f ∶ N → N such
that: (i) The greatest common divisor of the sequence f (1), f (2), . . . is 1. (ii) For all sufficiently large integers n,
we have f (n) ≠ 1 and
n−1 n−1
f (a)n ∣ f (a + b)a − f (b)a
for all positive integers a and b.