Lifting the Exponent Lemma (LTE) 20

Exercise 1.2.1. Can you recall some corollary which will be useful here? Maybe take corollary
1.2.2 into action.

We don’t always like to solve our exercises however we spoil it by application of the corollary point
out before we get that
v p a2013 + b2013 = v p (a + b) + v p (2013) = 1,

a contradiction. Thus p | a, b and this implies that p2013 | a2013 + b2013 and so all values n ≤ 2013
satisfy pn | a2013 + b2013 and so the answer is 2013.

Problem 1.2.4 (2007 Brazil TST). Find all integer solutions to the equation

x7 − 1
= y5 − 1.
x−1

Solution. We proceed with a claim.

x7 −1
Claim— If x is an integer and p is a prime divisor of x−1 = y5 − 1 then we have p ≡ 1 (mod 7) or
p = 7.
Proof. p|x7 − 1 and p|x p−1 − 1 (Fermat’s Little Theorem).Let us assume that 7 does not divide
7 −1
p − 1.Then gcd(p − 1, 7) = 1,so p|xgcd(p−1,7) − 1 = x − 1,so xx−1 = 1 + x + .... + x6 ≡ 7 (mod p)
and hence we get p = 7.This completes the proof of the lemma.

x7 −1
Let k be a positive divisor of x−1 .Then k ≡ 0 (mod 7) or k ≡ 1 (mod 7).Let us assume that (x, y) is
7
−1
an integer solution of the equation.Then y − 1| xx−1 ⇒ y ≡ 1 (mod 7) or y ≡ 2 (mod 7)For the first
case,1 + y + y + y + y ≡ 5 (mod 7) while in the second case 1 + y + y2 + y3 + y4 ≡ 3 (mod 7).This
2 3 4
7 −1
contradicts the fact that a positive divisor of xx−1 must be congruent to 0 or 1 modulo 7.So we have
no solutions.

Problem 1.2.5 (American Mathematical Monthly). Let a, b, c be positive integers such that
c −bc
c | ac − bc . Show that c | aa−b .

Solution. Let v p (c) = k for some prime p and k ≥ 1. If p - a − b, then we obviously have

ac − bc
pk |
a−b