Find all positive integer pairs such that there exists positive integer
holds for all integer
(Note that gcd(x, y) denotes the greatest common divisor of integers x and y.)
Solution
Claim: We must have . Proof: Assume the contrary. Then, we must have (since ). Note that and .
Now, take some with .
Then, we have that
and likewise
Therefore,
However, since , we cannot have , since that would imply . Therefore, one of is not . WLOG suppose that was not . Then, , so since , we must have , so consequently However, since , we must have , but the first expression is divisible by , and the second expression is not, absurd. Thus, we have a contradiction and so we must have .
Thus, , so , which clearly works since the gcd is always , so we're done.