olymmath

Putnam 2015 B3

  • Session B

Let SS be the set of all 2×22 \times 2 real matrices M=(abcd)M = \begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} whose entries a,b,c,da,b,c,d (in that order) form an arithmetic progression. Find all matrices MM in SS for which there is some integer k>1k>1 such that MkM^k is also in SS.

Curated text Kedlaya Putnam archive. Quoted with source.

Solutions

Human solution Solution 1 by Manjul Bhargava, Kiran Kedlaya and Lenny Ng

The terms of the source let olymmath link to this solution but not copy it. Read the solution (Kedlaya Putnam archive).

Locator putnam/2015/b3 · Tag HFQJKNRQAN · Edit this page on GitHub · Keys: j next, k previous