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Mathematica competitions in Croatia

Croatia number theory

Problem

Are there integers and such that both and are perfect squares?
Solution
Let us assume there are integers , , and such that and .

First case: The numbers and are even. From we conclude that is divisible by which is impossible.

Second case: Exactly one of the numbers and (say ) is even. From we conclude for some integer , because has no divisors of the form for an integer . Also, is odd so we can write it in the form for some integer . From we conclude that for some integer . Then , for some integer , so it can not be a perfect square. We got a contradiction.

Third case: Both numbers and are odd. Then the number is even, so is divisible by . Hence one of the numbers and has to have residue when divided by . We again got a contradiction since can not have a divisor of the form for some integer .

Since all cases lead to a contradiction we conclude there are no such and .
Final answer
No; there are no such integers.

Techniques

Modular ArithmeticQuadratic residuesTechniques: modulo, size analysis, order analysis, inequalitiesDivisibility / Factorization