A positive integer $t$ is called a Jane's integer if $t = x^3+y^2$ for some positive integers $x$ and $y$. Prove that for every integer $n \ge 2$ there exist infinitely many positive integers $m$ such that the set of $n^2$ consecutive integers $\{m+1,m+2,\dotsc,m+n^2\}$ contains exactly $n + 1$ Jane's integers.
Problem
Source: VJIMC 2017, Category II, Problem 4
Tags: number theory
03.04.2017 14:48
Nice problem.
20.04.2017 22:17
Note that Claim 1. in the above solution can be done in an easier way; Suppose there exist only finite $m$ that $\{ m+1, \ldots, m+n^2 \}$ contains at most $n$ Jane's integers. There exist constant $C$ that if $m>C$, then the number of Jane\s integers in such set is more than $n$. Since the number of Jane's integer in the interval $[1,N^6]$ is at most $N^{\frac{6}{3}}\times N^{\frac{6}{2}}=N^5$ Consider large enough $N^6=C+Tn^2$ where $T$ is a positive number, we get that the number of Jane's integers not larger than $N^6$ is at most $N^5$ but also at least $0+Tn=\frac{N^6-C}{n}$. So $N^5\geq \frac{N^6-C}{n}$ for all positive integer $N^6>C$ and fixed positive constant $C,n$. This gives a contradiction for large enough $N$, done.
20.04.2017 22:31
Maybe the most difficult part when solving this problem is really to note that the request for exactly $n+1$ such numbers is a bit of a red herring. Another problem where this "continuity principle" is essential is this problem (which is somewhat easy once you got that idea, but otherwise quite hard to solve...)
23.04.2017 12:45
My solution is almost identical to the ones posted here. But the idea is too nice for me to resist posting