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Iranian Mathematical Olympiad

Iran number theory

Problem

Determine all increasing sequence of positive integers such that for every , the number of positive divisors of and are equal (A sequence is increasing if implies ).
Solution
First it is easy to show that the sequence is strictly increasing. Assume that for some . Let for a large prime . Now is a prime number. So is prime too. But from we get and are prime numbers. So and are two consecutive large prime numbers, contradiction.

Now put for a large prime . So the number of divisors of equals . Hence is of the form for a prime . Obviously should be and therefore we have .

Now we have a strictly increasing sequence of integers with infinitely many fixed points. So, for each , .
Final answer
a_n = n for all n

Techniques

τ (number of divisors)Prime numbers