Somewhat basic diophantine equation

Algebra Level 4

3 a 3 + 5 b 3 + 15 c 3 = 45 a b c . \large 3a^3+5b^3+15c^3=45abc.

Find the integer triples ( a , b , c ) (a, b, c) satisfying the equation above. Give your answer as the sum of every possible value of a + b + c a+b+c .


The answer is 0.

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1 solution

We see that the trivial solution is ( a , b , c ) = ( 0 , 0 , 0 ) (a,b,c)=(0,0,0) . If two of a , b , c a,b,c are zero, it implies that the another one must be zero as well. If one of a , b , c a,b,c is zero, there will be no integral solution but all zero, since 3 3 , 5 3 , 5 3 3 \sqrt[3]{3}, \sqrt[3]{5}, \sqrt[3]{\frac{5}{3}} are not rational. Therefore, it is left to find solution that none of a , b , c a,b,c is zero.

Because this equation is homogeneous (of order 3 3 ), we assume that gcd ( a , b , c ) = 1 \gcd(a,b,c)=1 . Notice that 5 a 5 \mid a , so we let a = 5 x a=5x , and get the new (reduced) equation 75 x 3 + b 3 + 3 c 3 = 45 x b c . 75x^3+b^3+3c^3 = 45xbc. Again, we see that 3 b 3 \mid b , so we let b = 3 y b=3y , and have the new equation 25 x 3 + 9 y 3 + c 3 = 45 x y c . 25x^3+9y^3+c^3 = 45xyc. Take modulo 9 9 , we have that 7 x 3 + c 3 0 ( m o d 9 ) . 7x^3+c^3 \equiv 0 \pmod{9}. Since the possible residues of a cube modulo 9 9 are 0 , 1 , 8 0,1,8 , we write the table of 7 x 3 + c 3 m o d 9 7x^3+c^3 \mod{9} as follow. ( x 3 m o d 9 ) 0 1 8 0 0 7 2 ( c 3 m o d 9 ) 1 1 8 3 8 8 6 1 \hspace{70pt} (x^3 \mod{9})\\ \hspace{75pt} ~~ ~~ 0 ~~ ~~ ~~ 1 ~~ ~~ ~~ 8 ~~ ~~\\ \hspace{60pt} ~~ 0 ~~ || ~~ 0 ~~ || ~~ 7 ~~ || ~~ 2 ~~ ||\\ (c^3 \mod{9}) ~~ ~~ 1 ~~ || ~~ 1 ~~ || ~~ 8 ~~ || ~~ 3 ~~||\\ \hspace{60pt} ~~ 8 ~~ || ~~ 8 ~~ || ~~ 6 ~~ || ~~ 1 ~~|| We see that the only case that makes 7 x 3 + c 3 0 ( m o d 9 ) 7x^3+c^3 \equiv 0 \pmod{9} is that x 3 0 ( m o d 9 ) x^3 \equiv 0 \pmod{9} and c 3 0 ( m o d 9 ) c^3 \equiv 0 \pmod{9} . Finally, we get that 3 x 3 \mid x and 3 c 3 \mid c . This means that a , b , c a,b,c are all divisible by 3 3 , contradicting our assumption that they are relatively prime. Thus, there is no other solution than ( a , b , c ) = ( 0 , 0 , 0 ) (a,b,c)=(0,0,0) , and the answer to this problem is 0 + 0 + 0 = 0 0+0+0=\boxed{0} .

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