Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
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Contests & Programs AMC and other contests, summer programs, etc.
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k a April Highlights and 2025 AoPS Online Class Information
jlacosta   0
Yesterday at 3:18 PM
Spring is in full swing and summer is right around the corner, what are your plans? At AoPS Online our schedule has new classes starting now through July, so be sure to keep your skills sharp and be prepared for the Fall school year! Check out the schedule of upcoming classes below.

WOOT early bird pricing is in effect, don’t miss out! If you took MathWOOT Level 2 last year, no worries, it is all new problems this year! Our Worldwide Online Olympiad Training program is for high school level competitors. AoPS designed these courses to help our top students get the deep focus they need to succeed in their specific competition goals. Check out the details at this link for all our WOOT programs in math, computer science, chemistry, and physics.

Looking for summer camps in math and language arts? Be sure to check out the video-based summer camps offered at the Virtual Campus that are 2- to 4-weeks in duration. There are middle and high school competition math camps as well as Math Beasts camps that review key topics coupled with fun explorations covering areas such as graph theory (Math Beasts Camp 6), cryptography (Math Beasts Camp 7-8), and topology (Math Beasts Camp 8-9)!

Be sure to mark your calendars for the following events:
[list][*]April 3rd (Webinar), 4pm PT/7:00pm ET, Learning with AoPS: Perspectives from a Parent, Math Camp Instructor, and University Professor
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April 9th (Webinar), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Learn about Video-based Summer Camps at the Virtual Campus
[*]April 10th (Math Jam), 4:30pm PT/7:30pm ET, 2025 MathILy and MathILy-Er Math Jam: Multibackwards Numbers
[*]April 22nd (Webinar), 4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET, Competitive Programming at AoPS (USACO).[/list]
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0 replies
jlacosta
Yesterday at 3:18 PM
0 replies
k i Adding contests to the Contest Collections
dcouchman   1
N Apr 5, 2023 by v_Enhance
Want to help AoPS remain a valuable Olympiad resource? Help us add contests to AoPS's Contest Collections.

Find instructions and a list of contests to add here: https://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c40244h1064480_contests_to_add
1 reply
dcouchman
Sep 9, 2019
v_Enhance
Apr 5, 2023
k i Zero tolerance
ZetaX   49
N May 4, 2019 by NoDealsHere
Source: Use your common sense! (enough is enough)
Some users don't want to learn, some other simply ignore advises.
But please follow the following guideline:


To make it short: ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE IF POSTING!
If you don't have common sense, don't post.


More specifically:

For new threads:


a) Good, meaningful title:
The title has to say what the problem is about in best way possible.
If that title occured already, it's definitely bad. And contest names aren't good either.
That's in fact a requirement for being able to search old problems.

Examples:
Bad titles:
- "Hard"/"Medium"/"Easy" (if you find it so cool how hard/easy it is, tell it in the post and use a title that tells us the problem)
- "Number Theory" (hey guy, guess why this forum's named that way¿ and is it the only such problem on earth¿)
- "Fibonacci" (there are millions of Fibonacci problems out there, all posted and named the same...)
- "Chinese TST 2003" (does this say anything about the problem¿)
Good titles:
- "On divisors of a³+2b³+4c³-6abc"
- "Number of solutions to x²+y²=6z²"
- "Fibonacci numbers are never squares"


b) Use search function:
Before posting a "new" problem spend at least two, better five, minutes to look if this problem was posted before. If it was, don't repost it. If you have anything important to say on topic, post it in one of the older threads.
If the thread is locked cause of this, use search function.

Update (by Amir Hossein). The best way to search for two keywords in AoPS is to input
[code]+"first keyword" +"second keyword"[/code]
so that any post containing both strings "first word" and "second form".


c) Good problem statement:
Some recent really bad post was:
[quote]$lim_{n\to 1}^{+\infty}\frac{1}{n}-lnn$[/quote]
It contains no question and no answer.
If you do this, too, you are on the best way to get your thread deleted. Write everything clearly, define where your variables come from (and define the "natural" numbers if used). Additionally read your post at least twice before submitting. After you sent it, read it again and use the Edit-Button if necessary to correct errors.


For answers to already existing threads:


d) Of any interest and with content:
Don't post things that are more trivial than completely obvious. For example, if the question is to solve $x^{3}+y^{3}=z^{3}$, do not answer with "$x=y=z=0$ is a solution" only. Either you post any kind of proof or at least something unexpected (like "$x=1337, y=481, z=42$ is the smallest solution). Someone that does not see that $x=y=z=0$ is a solution of the above without your post is completely wrong here, this is an IMO-level forum.
Similar, posting "I have solved this problem" but not posting anything else is not welcome; it even looks that you just want to show off what a genius you are.

e) Well written and checked answers:
Like c) for new threads, check your solutions at least twice for mistakes. And after sending, read it again and use the Edit-Button if necessary to correct errors.



To repeat it: ALWAYS USE YOUR COMMON SENSE IF POSTING!


Everything definitely out of range of common sense will be locked or deleted (exept for new users having less than about 42 posts, they are newbies and need/get some time to learn).

The above rules will be applied from next monday (5. march of 2007).
Feel free to discuss on this here.
49 replies
ZetaX
Feb 27, 2007
NoDealsHere
May 4, 2019
Thanks u!
Ruji2018252   5
N 2 hours ago by Sadigly
Find all $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ and
\[ f(x+y)+f(x^2+f(y))=f(f(x))^2+f(x)+f(y)+y,\forall x,y\in\mathbb{R}\]
5 replies
Ruji2018252
Mar 26, 2025
Sadigly
2 hours ago
MOP Cutoffs Out?
Mathandski   28
N 3 hours ago by Yrock
MAA has just emailed a press release announcing the formula they will be using this year to come up with the MOP cutoff that applies to you! Here's the process:

1. Multiply your age by $1434$, let $n$ be the result.

2. Calculate $\varphi(n)$, where $\varphi$ is the Euler's totient theorem, which calculates the number of integers less than $n$ relatively prime to $n$.

3. Multiply your result by $1434$ again because why not, let the result be $m$.

4. Define the Fibonacci sequence $F_0 = 1, F_1 = 1, F_n = F_{n-1} + F_{n-2}$ for $n \ge 2$. Let $r$ be the remainder $F_m$ leaves when you divide it by $69$.

5. Let $x$ be your predicted USA(J)MO score.

6. You will be invited if your score is at least $\lfloor \frac{x + \sqrt[r]{r^2} + r \ln(r)}{r} \rfloor$.

7. Note that there may be additional age restrictions for non-high schoolers.

See here for MAA's original news message.

.

.

.


Edit (4/2/2025): This was an April Fool's post.
Here's the punchline
28 replies
+1 w
Mathandski
Tuesday at 11:02 PM
Yrock
3 hours ago
mdk2013
Mar 30, 2025
mdk2013
3 hours ago
Famous geo configuration appears on the district MO
AndreiVila   5
N 3 hours ago by chirita.andrei
Source: Romanian District Olympiad 2025 10.4
Let $ABCDEF$ be a convex hexagon with $\angle A = \angle C=\angle E$ and $\angle B = \angle D=\angle F$.
[list=a]
[*] Prove that there is a unique point $P$ which is equidistant from sides $AB,CD$ and $EF$.
[*] If $G_1$ and $G_2$ are the centers of mass of $\triangle ACE$ and $\triangle BDF$, show that $\angle G_1PG_2=60^{\circ}$.
5 replies
AndreiVila
Mar 8, 2025
chirita.andrei
3 hours ago
Classic complex number geo
Ciobi_   1
N 3 hours ago by TestX01
Source: Romania NMO 2025 10.1
Let $M$ be a point in the plane, distinct from the vertices of $\triangle ABC$. Consider $N,P,Q$ the reflections of $M$ with respect to lines $AB, BC$ and $CA$, in this order.
a) Prove that $N, P ,Q$ are collinear if and only if $M$ lies on the circumcircle of $\triangle ABC$.
b) If $M$ does not lie on the circumcircle of $\triangle ABC$ and the centroids of triangles $\triangle ABC$ and $\triangle NPQ$ coincide, prove that $\triangle ABC$ is equilateral.
1 reply
Ciobi_
Yesterday at 12:56 PM
TestX01
3 hours ago
The greatest length of a sequence that satisfies a special condition
EmersonSoriano   0
3 hours ago
Source: 2018 Peru TST Cono Sur P9
Find the largest possible value of the positive integer $N$ given that there exist positive integers $a_1, a_2, \dots, a_N$ satisfying
$$ a_n = \sqrt{(a_{n-1})^2 + 2018 \, a_{n-2}}\:, \quad \text{for } n = 3,4,\dots,N. $$
0 replies
EmersonSoriano
3 hours ago
0 replies
Olympiad Geometry problem-second time posting
kjhgyuio   5
N 3 hours ago by kjhgyuio
Source: smo problem
In trapezium ABCD,AD is parallel to BC and points E and F are midpoints of AB and DC respectively. If
Area of AEFD/Area of EBCF =√3 + 1/3-√3 and the area of triangle ABD is √3 .find the area of trapezium ABCD
5 replies
kjhgyuio
Yesterday at 1:03 AM
kjhgyuio
3 hours ago
Summing the GCD of a number and the divisors of another.
EmersonSoriano   0
3 hours ago
Source: 2018 Peru TST Cono Sur P8
For each pair of positive integers $m$ and $n$, we define $f_m(n)$ as follows:
$$ f_m(n) = \gcd(n, d_1) + \gcd(n, d_2) + \cdots + \gcd(n, d_k), $$where $1 = d_1 < d_2 < \cdots < d_k = m$ are all the positive divisors of $m$. For example,
$f_4(6) = \gcd(6,1) + \gcd(6,2) + \gcd(6,4) = 5$.

$a)\:$ Find all positive integers $n$ such that $f_{2017}(n) = f_n(2017)$.

$b)\:$ Find all positive integers $n$ such that $f_6(n) = f_n(6)$.
0 replies
EmersonSoriano
3 hours ago
0 replies
Sum of whose elements is divisible by p
nntrkien   42
N 3 hours ago by cubres
Source: IMO 1995, Problem 6, Day 2, IMO Shortlist 1995, N6
Let $ p$ be an odd prime number. How many $ p$-element subsets $ A$ of $ \{1,2,\dots,2p\}$ are there, the sum of whose elements is divisible by $ p$?
42 replies
nntrkien
Aug 8, 2004
cubres
3 hours ago
kind of well known?
dotscom26   3
N 3 hours ago by Svenskerhaor
Source: MBL
Let $ y_1, y_2, ..., y_{2025}$ be real numbers satisfying
$
y_1^2 + y_2^2 + \cdots + y_{2025}^2 = 1.
$
Find the maximum value of
$
|y_1 - y_2| + |y_2 - y_3| + \cdots + |y_{2025} - y_1|.
$

I have seen many problems with the same structure, Id really appreciate if someone could explain which approach is suitable here
3 replies
dotscom26
Tuesday at 4:11 AM
Svenskerhaor
3 hours ago
Locus of a point on the side of a square
EmersonSoriano   0
3 hours ago
Source: 2018 Peru TST Cono Sur P7
Let $ABCD$ be a fixed square and $K$ a variable point on segment $AD$. The square $KLMN$ is constructed such that $B$ is on segment $LM$ and $C$ is on segment $MN$. Let $T$ be the intersection point of lines $LA$ and $ND$. Find the locus of $T$ as $K$ varies along segment $AD$.
0 replies
EmersonSoriano
3 hours ago
0 replies
Chess queens on a cylindrical board
EmersonSoriano   0
3 hours ago
Source: 2018 Peru TST Cono Sur P6
Let $n$ be a positive integer. In an $n \times n$ board, two opposite sides have been joined, forming a cylinder. Determine whether it is possible to place $n$ queens on the board such that no two threaten each other when:

$a)\:$ $n=14$.

$b)\:$ $n=15$.
0 replies
EmersonSoriano
3 hours ago
0 replies
Moving P(o)in(t)s
bobthegod78   69
N 4 hours ago by akliu
Source: USAJMO 2021/4
Carina has three pins, labeled $A, B$, and $C$, respectively, located at the origin of the coordinate plane. In a move, Carina may move a pin to an adjacent lattice point at distance $1$ away. What is the least number of moves that Carina can make in order for triangle $ABC$ to have area 2021?

(A lattice point is a point $(x, y)$ in the coordinate plane where $x$ and $y$ are both integers, not necessarily positive.)
69 replies
bobthegod78
Apr 15, 2021
akliu
4 hours ago
Double dose of cyanide on day 2
brianzjk   30
N 5 hours ago by akliu
Source: USAMO 2023/5
Let $n\geq3$ be an integer. We say that an arrangement of the numbers $1$, $2$, $\dots$, $n^2$ in a $n \times n$ table is row-valid if the numbers in each row can be permuted to form an arithmetic progression, and column-valid if the numbers in each column can be permuted to form an arithmetic progression. For what values of $n$ is it possible to transform any row-valid arrangement into a column-valid arrangement by permuting the numbers in each row?
30 replies
brianzjk
Mar 23, 2023
akliu
5 hours ago
MAA finally wrote sum good number theory
IAmTheHazard   95
N Mar 30, 2025 by Magnetoninja
Source: 2021 AIME I P14
For any positive integer $a,$ $\sigma(a)$ denotes the sum of the positive integer divisors of $a.$ Let $n$ be the least positive integer such that $\sigma(a^n)-1$ is divisible by $2021$ for all positive integers $a.$ Find the sum of the prime factors in the prime factorization of $n.$
95 replies
IAmTheHazard
Mar 11, 2021
Magnetoninja
Mar 30, 2025
MAA finally wrote sum good number theory
G H J
G H BBookmark kLocked kLocked NReply
Source: 2021 AIME I P14
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Fruitz
138 posts
#84 • 1 Y
Y by dolphinday
thisismath1234 wrote:
How is this a P14? Anyone saying it should be a JMO question (even one that required proof) is also extremely misguided. Anyone who knows any number theory can solve this instantly. In addition, anyone who put 35 as an answer probably doesn't actually know number theory and just memorized formulas. It should be instantly apparent that you are not done by requiring 42, 46 to divide n.

Only around 2.4% of competitors were able to solve this problem, so I think its placement is fine for a P14. Additionally, I think it is not that people "memorize formulas", rather that people glossed over a few cases. Also, I think the way this problem is structured would be nice for a JMO P1/4.
Attachments:
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thisismath1234
43 posts
#85
Y by
dolphinday wrote:
So, we can compute the least positive integer $n$ so that the expression is divisible by $43$ and $47$. By FLT, $a^{42} - 1 \equiv 0\pmod{43}$, for $a$ being relatively prime to $43$.
This is why $n$ has to be divisible by $43$, for the cases where $a$ is not relatively prime to $43$.

This line is just wrong. We care about divisibility by of n by 43 when p is 1 mod 43, not when p (or a) is 0 mod 43. Did you actually do the problem or just read the solutions above and post something that went along the same lines
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by thisismath1234, Oct 31, 2023, 2:16 AM
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dolphinday
1318 posts
#86
Y by
thisismath1234 wrote:
dolphinday wrote:
So, we can compute the least positive integer $n$ so that the expression is divisible by $43$ and $47$. By FLT, $a^{42} - 1 \equiv 0\pmod{43}$, for $a$ being relatively prime to $43$.
This is why $n$ has to be divisible by $43$, for the cases where $a$ is not relatively prime to $43$.

This line is just wrong. We care about divisibility by of n by 43 when p is 1 mod 43, not when p (or a) is 0 mod 43. Did you actually do the problem or just read the solutions above and post something that went along the same lines

Thank you for catching that mistake but it's quite rude of you to assume that, when I genuinely misunderstood something.
I will make sure to correct that, but all it seems you've been doing is criticizing other people, calling out the problem for being too easy and just generally being rude. Can you avoid that please
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thisismath1234
43 posts
#87
Y by
I'm sorry if my words seemed harsh; I didn't mean to be unkind and will be more mindful in the future. I shouldn't have assumed that you did not do the problem.
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dolphinday
1318 posts
#88
Y by
thisismath1234 wrote:
I'm sorry if my words seemed harsh; I didn't mean to be unkind and will be more mindful in the future. I shouldn't have assumed that you did not do the problem.

It's ok, no worries and also thanks for catching my mistake. Probably if you didn't, I wouldn't have ever noticed :)
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OlympusHero
17019 posts
#89
Y by
mira74 wrote:
wait I think i see a couple posts saying this so imma just point out that you dont need $\varphi(2021)$ to divide $n$. just having $\varphi(2021)/2$ divide it is enough.

In general, for $a^k \equiv 1 \pmod{n}$ for all $a$ relatively prime to $n$, we don't need $\varphi(n) \mid k$. The actual number is given by the Carmichael Function, which is sorta the lcm of the totients of the prime powers, but is weird when there's a power of $2$ dividing $n$.

I was just solving this problem and had a question about it regarding this: I had the exact solution as @vsamc in #4, but this is technically wrong since it would be the LCM of $2021$ and HALF the totient of $2021$, not the totient of $2021$. I was wondering how, in general, you would know whether it is half the totient or something else instead of just the totient itself? I looked and didn't find any general formula for the Carmichael function, so I was curious about this. For this problem, it wouldn't make a difference to the answer, but it might for some other problem so I wanted to know. Thanks in advance!
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OlympusHero
17019 posts
#90
Y by
Sorry to double post but I'm pretty sure I figured it out - 2021 is 43 * 47, so you split it up into mod 43 and 47, which are both prime, so their totients are 42 and 46. Thus the Carmichael function would give lcm(42,46) which is indeed half of the totient of 2021.
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v_Enhance
6870 posts
#91 • 1 Y
Y by sanaops9
Sorry to double post but I'm pretty sure I figured it out - 2021 is 43 * 47, so you split it up into mod 43 and 47, which are both prime, so their totients are 42 and 46. Thus the Carmichael function would give lcm(42,46) which is indeed half of the totient of 2021.

Yes, that's exactly right.

The general formula for the Carmichael function is stated at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmichael_function#Recurrence_for_%CE%BB(n) (although it's called a "recurrence" in Wikipedia right now, I think that's a bit misleading). As you've already figured out, it's just the LCM of Carmichael function on each individual prime (power).
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de-Kirschbaum
187 posts
#92
Y by
If $2021|\sigma(a^n)-1$ for all integers $a$, then we can consider prime integers first. If $a=p$, then we want $\sigma(p^n)-1 \equiv 0 \mod{43}$ and $\sigma(p^n)-1 \equiv 0 \mod{47}$. First consider the 43 case. Writing out the LHS we have that $\frac{p^{n+1}-1}{p-1}-1 \equiv 0 \mod{43} \implies \frac{p^{n+1}-1}{p-1} \equiv 1 \mod{43}$. Now there are two things we must consider. First, if $p-1, 43$ are coprime, then division is defined in mod 43 and we can just multiply it out. In that case, $p^{n+1}-1 \equiv p-1 \mod{43} \implies p(p^n-1) \equiv 0 \mod{43}$. Of course, if $p=43$ this is true, but we need to ensure this is true for all $p \neq 43$. In order to do that, we must have $p^n-1 \equiv 0 \mod{43}$. FLT guarantees this is true when $42 | n$, and we will take it because there probably exists some prime that has that as the smallest period.

If $p-1, 43$ aren't coprime, then their gcd is 43 since 43 is a prime. That means we can write $p-1=43k \implies p=43k+1$. Thus consider the original expression of the sigma function $\sigma(p^n)=1+p+...+p^n \equiv 1+1+...+1 \equiv n+1 \mod{43}$. We want $n+1-1 \equiv n \equiv 0 \mod{43}$, so $43|n$. By similar analysis we can get $46|n, 47|n$. So we know that the least $n$ right now is $lcm(42,43,46,47)$.

Now consider any composite number $a=p_1^{e_1}p_2^{e_2}...p_m^{e_m}$. We have that $\sigma(a^n)-1 \equiv \frac{p_1^{ne_1+1}-1}{p_1-1}...\frac{p_m^{ne_m+1}-1}{p_m-1} -1 \mod{2021}$. Note that $n$ actually ensures each part of this multiplication to be $1 \mod{2021}$, as $n$ guarantees $\sigma(p^n) \equiv 1 \mod{2021}$ for any p. Thus, we just have $1-1 \equiv 0 \mod{2021}$ and we do not need to modify $n$ further.
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gladIasked
632 posts
#93
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fairly straightforward

We want $\sigma(a^n) \equiv 1\pmod{2021}$. Because of the multiplicativity of $\sigma$, we only need check $a = p^k$, where $p$ is a prime. Note that $$\sigma((p^k)^n) = 1 + p + p^2 + \cdots + p^{kn}$$. Our original modular congruence becomes \begin{align*}1 + p + p^2 + \cdots + p^{kn}&\equiv 1\pmod{2021}\\ \iff p + p^2 + \cdots p^{kn} &\equiv 0\pmod{2021}\\ \iff 1 + p + \cdots + p^{kn-1}&\equiv 0\pmod{2021} \\ \iff \frac{p^{kn}-1}{p-1}&\equiv 0\pmod{2021}\end{align*}This implies that $p^{kn} \equiv 1\pmod{2021}$. Breaking this up with CRT, we have $p^{kn} \equiv 1\pmod{43}$ and $p^{kn}\equiv 1\pmod{47}$, from which we deduce (via FLT) that $42\mid n$ and $46\mid n$. However, this fails when either $v_{43}(p^{kn} - 1) = v_{43}(p-1)$ or $v_{47}(p^{kn} - 1) = v_{47}(p-1)$. Using LTE, we see that $$v_{43}(p^{kn} - 1) = v_{43}(p-1) + v_{43}(n)$$. We need $v_{43}(n) > 0$, so $43\mid n$. We can similarly deduce that $47\mid n$. Thus, our answer will just be $n = \text{lcm}(42, 43, 46, 47)$, which gives us the final answer of $\boxed{125}$.
This post has been edited 2 times. Last edited by gladIasked, Jan 14, 2024, 5:07 PM
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Cusofay
85 posts
#94
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We know that $\sigma (a^n)-1=\prod_{1\leq i\leq k}(1+p_i+p_i^2+\dots+p_i^{ne_i})-1$. Thus, we contend just need to find the smallest $n$ for which $\frac{p(p^n-1)}{p-1} \equiv 0 \pmod{2021}$. If $43,47\mid p-1$ then using LTE we find that $2021\mid$. Otherwise we use euler's totient theorem and if $p=47,43$ then $ord_{43},ord_{47}\mid \Phi(2021)$. Hence $n=1952286$

$$\mathbb{Q.E.D.}$$
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L13832
254 posts
#95 • 2 Y
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\begin{align*}
    &\text{We need}\; \sigma(a^n)-1 \equiv 0 \pmod {2021}.
    \;\text{Checking for values:} \\
    &[b]a=1:[/b] \sigma(1^n)-1=0 \;\text{so true for all n.}\\
    &[b]a=p[/b], \text{(p prime)}: \;\sigma(p^n)-1=\frac{p(p^n-1)}{p-1} \equiv 0 \pmod{2021}.\\
    &\text{Case I: p-1 has no 43s or 47s in its prime factorisation then it is easy to see that}\\&\; p(p^n-1)\equiv0 \pmod {2021} \; \text{we have to show when} \; p^n \equiv 1 \pmod{43} \; \text{and} \\ &\; p^n \equiv 1 \pmod{47},\; \text{n=42c and n=46d.} \;\text{So,} \;\text{n}=\text{LCM}(42,46)=42 \cdot 23.\\
    &\text{Case II: p-1 has 43 or 47 in prime factorisation}, \\& \text{First we look if 43 is there}\; p-1=43^ke \\
    &\Rightarrow p^n-1=43^{k+1}f\Rightarrow \boxed{p-1 \equiv 43^ke\pmod{43^{k+1}}} \\& \Rightarrow p^n \equiv (1+43^ke)^n \equiv n43^ke+1 \equiv 1\pmod{43^{k+1}} \\& \Rightarrow n43^ke \equiv 0 \pmod {43^{k+1}} \Rightarrow 43 \vert n.
   \\& \text{Similarly we try for when 47 is there in prime factorisation of $p-1$ we get}\;  47\vert n\\
   & \Rightarrow n=\operatorname{lcm}(42,43,46,47)\\
   &[b]a is composite[/b]\\
   &\text{Let}\; a=\prod_{i=1}^{u}p_i^{e_i} \;\text{Note that} \; \sigma(a) \text{is a multiplicative} \\
&\text{function:} \;\sigma(a)=\sigma\left(\prod_{i=1}^{u}p_i^{e_i}\right)=\prod_{i=1}^{u}\sigma\left(p_i^{e_i}\right), \; \text{as this product of} \text{is over all divisors of a.}\\
&\text{At}\;  n=\operatorname{lcm}(42,43,46,47),\; \text{we have}\; 
\sigma(a^n)-1=(\prod_{i=1}^{u}\sigma(p_i^{e_in}))-1 \equiv(\prod_{i=1}^{u}1)-1 \equiv 0\pmod{2021}.\\
&\text{The problems asks for the sum of the factors of n.}\\&n=\operatorname{lcm}(42,43,46,47)= 2\cdot3\cdot7\cdot23\cdot43\cdot47.\\
&\text{Therefore,}\; n=2+3+7+23+43+47=\boxed{\textbf{125}}
\end{align*}
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blueprimes
324 posts
#96
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Recall that $2021 = 43 \cdot 47$. We claim the minimal $n$ is $\text{lcm}(42, 43, 46, 47) = 2 \cdot 3 \cdot 7 \cdot 23 \cdot 43 \cdot 47$, yielding $\boxed{125}$ as the requested answer.

Consider an arbitrary prime $\gcd(p - 1, 2021) = 1$, allowing $a = p$ we want
\[1 + p + p^2 + \dots + p^n = \dfrac{p^{n + 1} - 1}{p - 1} \equiv 1 \pmod{2021} \iff p^{n + 1} \equiv p \pmod{2021}. \]Let $g_{43}$ and $g_{47}$ be arbitrary primitive roots of $43$ and $47$ respectively, by CRT and Dirichlet we can find a prime $p$ such that $p \equiv g_{43} \pmod{43}$ and $p \equiv g_{47} \pmod{47}$ which forces $\text{lcm}(43 - 1, 47 - 1) = \text{lcm}(42, 46) \mid n$.

On the other hand, if $\gcd(p - 1, 2021) \ne 1$, we have $p \equiv 1 \pmod{43}$ or $p \equiv 1 \pmod{47}$. Assume the former, plugging in $a = p$ gives
\[1 + p + p^2 + \dots + p^n \equiv n + 1 \equiv 1 \pmod{43} \iff 43 \mid n. \]A similar argument for $47$ means $47 \mid n$. Altogether, we get $43, 47 \mid n$.

From both of these cases we easily obtain $\text{lcm}(42, 43, 46, 47) \mid n$, it is easy to show sufficiency for $n = \text{lcm}(42, 43, 46, 47)$ (just generalize the form of $a$, use multiplicity, and re-iterate through the previous arguments) so we are done.
This post has been edited 1 time. Last edited by blueprimes, Dec 2, 2024, 3:03 AM
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AshAuktober
958 posts
#97
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Obtain from various values of $a$ that \[2021\phi(2021)\mid n\]is necessary,and then that it is sufficient,yielding 125.
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Magnetoninja
275 posts
#98
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Straightfoward for its placement:

Let $a=p_1^{e_1}*p_2^{e_2}*\cdots{p_k^{e_k}}$. $a^n=p_1^{ne_1}*p_2^{ne_2}*\cdots{p_k^{ne_k}} \Longrightarrow \sigma{(a^n)}=\prod_{j=1}^{k}{\sum_{i=0}^{e_j}{(p_j^i)}}=\prod_{j=1}^{k}{\frac{p_j^{ne_j+1}-1}{p_j-1}}$. Let prime $p|2021$. By induction, if $\sigma{(a_n)}\equiv 1\pmod{p}$, we also need $\sigma{(aq^{e_q})^n}=\prod_{j=1}^{k}{\sum_{i=0}^{e_j}{(p_j^i)}}*\frac{q^{ne_q+1}-1}{q-1} \equiv 1\pmod{p}$ so $\frac{q^{ne_q+1}-1}{q-1}\equiv 1\pmod{p}$ for all $q, e_q$. The base case is $a=1$, which is true. Now, if $q\neq{1}\pmod{p}$, then $q^{ne_1+1}-1\equiv q-1\pmod{p} \Longrightarrow q^{ne_q}=(q^{e_q})^n\equiv 1\pmod{p}$. By Fermat's Little Theorem, we need $p-1|n$ to satisfy this congruence for all $q, e_q$. If $q\equiv 1\pmod{p}$, then $(1+q+q^2\cdots{+q^{ne_q}})\equiv \underbrace{1+1\cdots{1}}_{ne_q+1}\equiv ne_q+1\equiv 1\pmod{p} \Longrightarrow n\equiv 0\pmod{p}$. Therefore $n(n-1)|p$. In our case $p=43, 47$, so we get $\text{lcm}{(42, 43, 46, 47)}=2*3*7*23*43*47$, giving us $\boxed{125}$.
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