Saturday, 25 October 2025

Exercise (1.4).16

Prove or disprove the following statements:

(a) If $d \mid a$ and $d \mid b$, then the Diophantine equation $ax + by= c$ has solutions.

(b) If $d \mid a$, $d \mid b$ and $d \mid c$, then the Diophantine equation $ax + by= c$ has solutions.

(c) The Diophantine equation $ax + (a + 1) y= 1$ has solutions.



(a) The equation $ax + by = c$ has integer solutions if $\gcd(a,b) \mid c$.

However, we have no reason to believe $\gcd(a,b)$ does indeed divide $c$.

We're given $d \mid a$ and $d \mid b$ but these have no constraint on $c$.

And so the statement is not always true.


(b) The equation $ax + by = c$ has integer solutions if $\gcd(a,b) \mid c$.

We're given $d \mid a$, $d \mid b$ and $d \mid c$, which means for some integers $p,q,r$, 

$$ a = pd $$

$$ b = qd $$

$$ c = rd $$

This gives us

$$ \gcd(a,b) = \gcd(pd, qd) = d \gcd(p,q) $$

The equation has integer solutions if $\gcd(a,b) \mid c$, which is restated as 

$$ d \gcd(p,q) \mid rd $$

That is, $\gcd(a,b)$ devides $c$ is there exists some integer $s$ such that

$$ rd = sd \gcd(p,q)$$

Simplified

$$ r = s \gcd(p,q)$$

There aren't enough constraints for us to determine this.

So in general the statement is not true.


(c) The Diophantine equation $ax + (a + 1) y= 1$ has integer solutions if $\gcd(a, a+1) \mid 1$. 

This is only possible if $\gcd(a, a + 1) = 1$.

We know from exercise (1.1).18 that two consecutive integers are coprime.

So the equation has integer solutions.