Ivan Shishkin, Rye (1878)

Problems/Number theoryReviewed

A cyclic system of congruences

by Ancient Tree·
35
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  2. 1125Beginner / high schoolDébutant / lycée
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Find all triples (a,b,c)(a,b,c) of positive integers such that the following congruencesFR are verified:
{ab(modc)bc(moda)ca(modb)\left\{\begin{array}{l} a \equiv b \pmod{c} \\ b \equiv c \pmod{a} \\ c \equiv a \pmod{b} \end{array}\right.where a,b,ca,b,c are positive integers.

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Solution by Sequoia

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Since the problem is symetric under any permutation of the variables a,b,ca,b,c, we can assume wlog that 0<cba0< c\leqslant b\leqslant a
Then the second equation from the system can be written as follow:
k0/b=c+ka\exists k\geqslant0/ b=c+kawhere kk is non-negative since bcb\geqslant c and aa is a positive integer.

Now assume that k1k\geqslant 1, then one gets b=c+kac+a>ab=c+ka\geqslant c+a>a but this is absurd since aba\geqslant b. Hence l=0l=0 and b=cb=c.

Then the first (and last) congruence can be rewritten as bab\mid a.

Reciprocally, any triple of the form (bd,b,b)(bd, b, b) with d,bd,b positive integers, is a solution of this system.

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