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Questions tagged [diophantine-equations]

Use for questions about finding integer or rational solutions to polynomial equations.

Use this tag for questions about finding integer, or perhaps rational, solutions to polynomial equations.

Diophantine equations are named after Diophantus of Alexandria, a third century Greek mathematician.

An example of a Diophantine equation is to find all quadruples of integers $(w,x,y,z)$ such that $$w^2+x^2=3(y^2+z^2).$$

Solving Diophantine equations often involves other areas of mathematics such as congruences, linear algebra, inequalities, forms (e.g., binary quadratic forms), and elliptic curves. Special solution methods include comparing divisors, considering orders of magnitude, Fermat's method of descent, and finding intersections of curves with lines of rational slope through a known rational point.

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Find five positive integers whose reciprocals sum to $1$

Find a positive integer solution $(x,y,z,a,b)$ for which $$\frac{1}{x}+ \frac{1}{y} + \frac{1}{z} + \frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} = 1\;.$$ Is your answer the only solution? If so, show why. I was surprised that a teacher would assign this kind of…
Low Scores
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Pythagorean triples that "survive" Euler's totient function

Suppose you have three positive integers $a, b, c$ that form a Pythagorean triple: \begin{equation} a^2 + b^2 = c^2. \tag{1}\label{1} \end{equation} Additionally, suppose that when you apply Euler's totient function to each term, the equation…
Misha Lavrov
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How to find solutions of linear Diophantine ax + by = c?

I want to find a set of integer solutions of Diophantine equation: $ax + by = c$, and apparently $\gcd(a,b)|c$. Then by what formula can I use to find $x$ and $y$ ? I tried to play around with it: $x = (c - by)/a$, hence $a|(c - by)$. $a$, $c$…
Chan
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Finding primes so that $x^p+y^p=z^p$ is unsolvable in the p-adic units

On my number theory exam yesterday, we had the following interesting problem related to Fermat's last theorem: Suppose $p>2$ is a prime. Show that $x^p+y^p=z^p$ has a solution in $\mathbb{Z}_p^{\times}$ if and only if there exists an integer $a$…
ArtW
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$x^y = y^x$ for integers $x$ and $y$

We know that $2^4 = 4^2$ and $(-2)^{-4} = (-4)^{-2}$. Is there another pair of integers $x, y$ ($x\neq y$) which satisfies the equality $x^y = y^x$?
Paulo Argolo
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How to solve these two simultaneous "divisibilities" : $n+1\mid m^2+1$ and $m+1\mid n^2+1$

Is it possible to find all integers $m>0$ and $n>0$ such that $n+1\mid m^2+1$ and $m+1\,|\,n^2+1$ ? I succeed to prove there is an infinite number of solutions, but I cannot progress anymore. Thanks !
uvdose
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On Ramanujan's curious equality for $\sqrt{2\,(1-3^{-2})(1-7^{-2})(1-11^{-2})\cdots} $

In Ramanujan's Notebooks, Vol IV, p.20, there is the rather curious relation for primes of form $4n-1$, $$\sqrt{2\,\Big(1-\frac{1}{3^2}\Big) \Big(1-\frac{1}{7^2}\Big)\Big(1-\frac{1}{11^2}\Big)\Big(1-\frac{1}{19^2}\Big)} =…
Tito Piezas III
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Let $k$ be a natural number . Then $3k+1$ , $4k+1$ and $6k+1$ cannot all be square numbers.

Let $k$ be a natural number. Then $3k+1$ , $4k+1$ and $6k+1$ cannot all be square numbers. I tried to prove this by supposing one of them is a square number and by substituting the corresponding $k$ value. But I failed to prove it. If we ignore…
Angelo Mark
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Golden Number Theory

The Gaussian $\mathbb{Z}[i]$ and Eisenstein $\mathbb{Z}[\omega]$ integers have been used to solve some diophantine equations. I have never seen any examples of the golden integers $\mathbb{Z}[\varphi]$ used in number theory though. If anyone happens…
quanta
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Finding triplets $(a,b,c)$ such that $\sqrt{abc}\in\mathbb N$ divides $(a-1)(b-1)(c-1)$

When I was playing with numbers, I found that there are many triplets of three positive integers $(a,b,c)$ such that $\color{red}{2\le} a\le b\le c$ $\sqrt{abc}\in\mathbb N$ $\sqrt{abc}$ divides $(a-1)(b-1)(c-1)$ Examples : The followings are…
mathlove
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$n!+1$ being a perfect square

One observes that \begin{equation*} 4!+1 =25=5^{2},~5!+1=121=11^{2} \end{equation*} is a perfect square. Similarly for $n=7$ also we see that $n!+1$ is a perfect square. So one can ask the truth of this question: Is $n!+1$ a perfect square for…
anonymous
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Generalizing the sum of consecutive cubes $\sum_{k=1}^n k^3 = \Big(\sum_{k=1}^n k\Big)^2$ to other odd powers

We have, $$\sum_{k=1}^n k^3 = \Big(\sum_{k=1}^n k\Big)^2$$ $$2\sum_{k=1}^n k^5 = -\Big(\sum_{k=1}^n k\Big)^2+3\Big(\sum_{k=1}^n k^2\Big)^2$$ $$2\sum_{k=1}^n k^7 = \Big(\sum_{k=1}^n k\Big)^2-3\Big(\sum_{k=1}^n k^2\Big)^2+4\Big(\sum_{k=1}^n…
Tito Piezas III
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Rational solutions to $a+b+c=abc=6$

The following appeared in the problems section of the March 2015 issue of the American Mathematical Monthly. Show that there are infinitely many rational triples $(a, b, c)$ such that $a + b + c = abc = 6$. For example, here are two solutions…
user940
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Decomposing polynomials with integer coefficients

Can every quadratic with integer coefficients be written as a sum of two polynomials with integer roots? (Any constant $k \in \mathbb{Z}$, including $0$, is also allowed as a term for simplicity's sake.) (In other words, is any given $P(x) = A +…
Vandermonde
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Is $\sqrt[3]{p+q\sqrt{3}}+\sqrt[3]{p-q\sqrt{3}}=n$, $(p,q,n)\in\mathbb{N} ^3$ solvable?

In this recent answer to this question by Eesu, Vladimir Reshetnikov proved that $$ \begin{equation} \left( 26+15\sqrt{3}\right) ^{1/3}+\left( 26-15\sqrt{3}\right) ^{1/3}=4.\tag{1} \end{equation} $$ I would like to know if this result can be…
Américo Tavares
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