You're a double negative

Given that m m and n n are integers then m n ( m 80 n 80 ) mn(m^{80} - n^{80}) is always divisible by the positive integer N N . Find the maximum value of N N .

Bonus question : Generalize this for m n ( m L n L ) mn(m^{L} - n^L) for some whole number L L .


The answer is 230010.

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1 solution

Patrick Corn
Aug 14, 2015

The general answer is that N N is the product of all positive primes p p such that ( p 1 ) L (p-1)|L .

To see this, note that if ( p 1 ) L (p-1)|L , then either p m n p|mn or m L n L 1 m^L \equiv n^L \equiv 1 mod p p , so all such primes p p must divide N N .

Also note that p 2 N p^2 \nmid N for any prime p p , because we can take m = p , n = 1 m = p, n = 1 .

Finally note that if ( p 1 ) L (p-1) \nmid L , then let g g be a primitive root mod p p , take m = g , n = 1 m = g, n = 1 , and we see that p m n ( m L n L ) p \nmid mn(m^L-n^L) .

For L = 80 L = 80 we get 2 3 5 11 17 41 = 230010 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 5 \cdot 11 \cdot 17 \cdot 41 = \fbox{230010} .

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