Powerful primes

Number Theory Level pending

Suppose that ( p 2014 + p 2015 ) (p^{2014}+p^{2015}) is equal to a perfect square, where p 'p' is a prime number. What is the value of p 'p' ?


The answer is 3.

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1 solution

Tijmen Veltman
May 29, 2015

We have p 2014 + p 2015 = p 2014 ( p + 1 ) p^{2014}+p^{2015}=p^{2014}(p+1) . Since p 2014 p^{2014} is a perfect square of p 1007 p^{1007} , we need p + 1 = n 2 p+1=n^2 for certain n N n\in\mathbb{N} . This gives p = n 2 1 = ( n + 1 ) ( n 1 ) p=n^2-1=(n+1)(n-1) ; hence for p p to be prime we need n 1 = 1 n-1=1 giving us n = 2 n=2 and p = 3 p=\boxed{3} .

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