IMO 1985 · Problem 4

Given a set \(M\) of 1985 distinct positive integers, none of which has a prime divisor greater than 26. Prove that \(M\) contains at least one subset of four distinct elements whose product is the fourth power of an integer.

Official text of the problem. Official problem paper (PDF)

Solution

The primes less than or equal to \(26\) are \[ p_1,\ldots,p_9=2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23. \] Every positive integer \(n\) having no other prime divisors has a unique representation \[ n=\prod_{j=1}^{9}p_j^{e_j}, \qquad e_j\ge 0. \] Associate to \(n\) its parity vector \[ v(n)=(e_1\bmod 2,\ldots,e_9\bmod 2). \] There are \(2^9=512\) possible parity vectors. Moreover, two such integers \(a,b\) have the same parity vector if and only if \(ab\) is a perfect square, since this is equivalent to every exponent in \(ab\) being even.

Repeatedly remove from \(M\) a pair of elements having the same parity vector, until no such pair remains. The remaining elements have distinct parity vectors, so there are at most \(512\) of them. Consequently, the number \(r\) of removed pairs satisfies \[ 1985-2r\le 512, \] and hence \(r\ge 737>512\).

Write these disjoint pairs as \((a_i,b_i)\), where \(1\le i\le r\). Each product is a square, so \[ a_i b_i=c_i^2 \] for a positive integer \(c_i\). Every prime divisor of \(c_i\) also divides \(a_i b_i\), so it belongs to the same list of nine primes.

Since there are more than \(512\) integers \(c_i\), two of them, say \(c_i\) and \(c_j\) with \(i\ne j\), have the same parity vector. Thus \(c_i c_j=d^2\) for some positive integer \(d\). Therefore \[ a_i b_i a_j b_j =c_i^2c_j^2 =(c_i c_j)^2 =d^4. \] The four elements \(a_i,b_i,a_j,b_j\) are distinct because the removed pairs were disjoint. They form the required subset. \(\square\)

The solution was checked against John Scholes' IMO solution archive (Kalva).