A natural number is called good if it can be represented as sum of two coprime natural numbers, the first of which decomposes into odd number of primes (not necceserily distinct) and the second to even. Prove that there exist infinity many $n$ with $n^4$ being good.
Problem
Source: 239 2014 S3
Tags: number theory
02.06.2020 13:03
I will prove that there exists infinitely many numbers $n^4$ such that $n^4=x^2+2y^2$ in which $x$ is odd and $y$ is even and $gcd(x,y)=1$ . Clearly we have that $n^4$ is a good number. Reason : $x^2$ has even prime factors and since $y^2$ has even prime factors $\implies$ $2y^2$ has odd prime factors. The goal is to construct a good number from previous good numbers Note that we have : $3^4=7^2+2*4^2$ By lagrange formula we have that $(a^2+mb^2)(c^2+md^2)=(ac-mbd)^2+m(bc+ad)^2$ By putting $c=a$ and $d=b$ and $m=2$ we get that $(a^2+2b^2)(a^2+2b^2)=(a^2-2b^2)^2+2(2ab)^2$ Assume that we have $(a^2+2b^2)=n_1^4$ , and $n_1^4$ is the largest number we know of the form $a^4$ and good number . Therefor by the formula above we can see that $n_1^8=(a^2-2b^2)+2(2ab)^2 \implies n_1^8$ is a good number , so we have found a bigger number of the form $a^4$ such that it is a good number . ( Note that $a^2-2b^2$ and $2ab$ are coprime) So we start form $3^4$ and construct $9^4$ and $81^4$ $\dots$ $Q.E.D$
26.09.2020 22:36
I may be missing something but doesn't $(2k)^4$ work? $16k^4=14k^4+2k^4$ ???????
27.09.2020 00:09
Taha1381 wrote: I may be missing something but doesn't $(2k)^4$ work? $16k^4=14k^4+2k^4$ ??????? I believe that $14k^4$ and $2k^4$ are not coprime.