VN-TST 2023 Problem 4

Given are two coprime positive integers $a, b$ with $b$ odd and $a>2$ . The sequence $(x_n)$ is defined by $x_0=2, x_1=a$ and $x_{n+2}=ax_{n+1}+bx_n$ for $n \geq 1$ . Prove that: $a)$ If $a$ is even then there do not exist positive integers $m, n, p$ such that $\frac{x_m} {x_nx_p}$ is a positive integer. $b)$ If $a$ is odd then there do not exist positive integers $m, n, p$ such that $mnp$ is even and $\frac{x_m} {x_nx_p}$ is a perfect square.