IMO 2022 Shortlist N6

Let Q be a set of prime numbers, not necessarily finite. For a positive integer n consider its prime factorisation; defi...

IMO 2022 Shortlist N6

Category: Number Theory

Problem

Let Q be a set of prime numbers, not necessarily finite. For a positive integer n consider its prime factorisation; define ppnq to be the sum of all the exponents and qpnq to be the sum of the exponents corresponding only to primes in Q. A positive integer n is called special if ppnq ppn 1q and qpnq qpn 1q are both even integers. Prove that there is a constant c ą 0 independent of the set Q such that for any positive integer N ą 100, the number of special integers in r1,Ns is at least cN. (For example, if Q “ t3,7u, then pp42q “ 3, qp42q “ 2, pp63q “ 3, qp63q “ 3, pp2022q “ 3, qp2022q “ 1.) (Costa Rica)