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Let $a$ and $b$ be two positive integers, such that neither $a$ nor $b$ is divisible by a perfect square. Is there be a simplified formula for

$$\gcd(a+b,\text{lcm}(a,b)) ?$$ and is there a way to find if this result is divisible by a perfect square or not?

Ofir
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user1907531
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2 Answers2

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Let $a=\prod p_i\prod q_j$ and $b=\prod p_i\prod r_k$ where $p_i,q_j,r_k$ are distinct primes.

So, $lcm(a,b)=\prod p_i\prod q_j \prod r_k$ and $\gcd(a,b)=\prod p_i$

So, $\gcd(a+b, lcm(a,b))=\gcd(\prod p_i(\prod q_j+ \prod r_k),\prod p_i\prod q_j \prod r_k)$ $=\prod p_i\gcd(\prod q_j+ \prod r_k,\prod q_j \prod r_k)$

Now, $\gcd(\prod q_j+ \prod r_k,\prod q_j)=\gcd(\prod r_k,\prod q_j)=1$ as $q_j,r_k$ are distinct primes.

Similarly, $\gcd(\prod q_j+ \prod r_k,\prod r_k)=1$

Consequently, $\gcd(\prod q_j+ \prod r_k,\prod q_j \prod r_k)=1$

$\gcd(a+b, lcm(a,b))=\prod p_i=\gcd(a,b)$

lab bhattacharjee
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Lemma: If $\gcd(x,y)=1$ then $z=\gcd(x+y, lcm(x,y))=1$. Proof: If $p$ divides $z$, then $p|x+y, lcm(x,y)$. Since $p|lcm(x,y)$ we have either $p|x$ or $p|y$. Together with $p|x+y$ we find that necessarily $p|x,y$, i.e. $p|\gcd(x,y)=1$. This establishes the lemma. $\blacksquare$

Let $g=\gcd(a,b)$. Now you can just write $$\gcd(a+b, lcm(a,b)) = g\gcd(\frac{a}{g}+\frac{b}{g}, \frac{lcm(a,b)}{g}) = g\gcd(\frac{a}{g}+\frac{b}{g}, lcm(\frac{a}{g},\frac{b}{g}))$$ (we've used the fact that both $\gcd$ and $lcm$ are homogeneous: $\gcd(cx,cy)=c \cdot \gcd(x,y), lcm(cx,cy)=c \cdot lcm(x,y)$)

And, by the lemma, since $\frac{a}{g}, \frac{b}{g}$ are coprime by construction, we have that this expression equals $g\cdot 1=\gcd(a,b)$.

So if $a,b$ are both squarefree, so is $\gcd(a,b)$, which is the value in question.

Ofir
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