# 1988 IMO Problems/Problem 6

## Problem

Let $a$ and $b$ be positive integers such that $ab + 1$ divides $a^{2} + b^{2}$. Show that $\frac {a^{2} + b^{2}}{ab + 1}$ is the square of an integer.

## Solution 1

Choose integers $a,b,k$ such that $a^2+b^2=k(ab+1)$ Now, for fixed $k$, out of all pairs $(a,b)$ choose the one with the lowest value of $\min(a,b)$. Label $b'=\min(a,b), a'=\max(a,b)$. Thus, $a'^2-kb'a'+b'^2-k=0$ is a quadratic in $a'$. Should there be another root, $c'$, the root would satisfy: $b'c'\leq a'c'=b'^2-k Thus, $c'$ isn't a positive integer (if it were, it would contradict the minimality condition). But $c'=kb'-a'$, so $c'$ is an integer; hence, $c'\leq 0$. In addition, $(a'+1)(c'+1)=a'c'+a'+c'+1=b'^2-k+b'k+1=b'^2+(b'-1)k+1\geq 1$ so that $c'>-1$. We conclude that $c'=0$ so that $b'^2=k$.

This construction works whenever there exists a solution $(a,b)$ for a fixed $k$, hence $k$ is always a perfect square.

## Solution 2 (Sort of Root Jumping)

We proceed by way of contradiction.

WLOG, let $a\geq{b}$ and fix $c$ to be the nonsquare positive integer such that such that $\frac{a^2+b^2}{ab+1}=c,$ or $a^2+b^2=c(ab+1).$ Choose a pair $(a, b)$ out of all valid pairs such that $a+b$ is minimized. Expanding and rearranging, $$P(a)=a^2+a(-bc)+b^2-c=0.$$ This quadratic has two roots, $r_1$ and $r_2$, such that $$(a-r_1)(a-r_2)=P(a)=0.$$ WLOG, let $r_1=a$. By Vieta's, $\textbf{(1) } r_2=bc-a,$ and $\textbf{(2) } r_2=\frac{b^2-c}{a}.$ From $\textbf{(1)}$, $r_2$ is an integer, because both $b$ and $c$ are integers.

From $\textbf{(2)},$ $r_2$ is nonzero since $c$ is not square, from our assumption.

We can plug in $r_2$ for $a$ in the original expression, because $P(r_2)=P(a)=0,$ yielding $c=\frac{r^2_2+b^2}{r_2b+1}$. If $c>0,$ then $r_2b+1>0,$ and $r_2b+1\neq{0},$ and because $b>0, r_2$ is a positive integer.

We construct the following inequalities: $r_2=\frac{b^2-c}{a} since $c$ is positive. Adding $b$, $r_2+b contradicting the minimality of $a+b.$

-Benedict T (countmath1)

 1988 IMO (Problems) • Resources Preceded byProblem 5 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 Followed byLast question All IMO Problems and Solutions