Problem

Source: Indian IMOTC 2013, Team Selection Test 4, Problem 1

Tags: modular arithmetic, Diophantine equation, number theory proposed, number theory



A positive integer $a$ is called a double number if it has an even number of digits (in base 10) and its base 10 representation has the form $a = a_1a_2 \cdots a_k a_1 a_2 \cdots a_k$ with $0 \le a_i \le 9$ for $1 \le i \le k$, and $a_1 \ne 0$. For example, $283283$ is a double number. Determine whether or not there are infinitely many double numbers $a$ such that $a + 1$ is a square and $a + 1$ is not a power of $10$.