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KöMaL problem A, 2017

Algebra Difficulty 8.0 Shortlist Prove it Hungary

We say that a strictly increasing positive real sequence a1,a2,…a_1,a_2,\dots is an elf sequence if for any c>0c>0 we can find an NN such that an<cna_n<cn for n=N,N+1,… .n=N,N+1,\dots\,. Furthermore, we say that ana_n is a hat if an−i+an+i<2ana_{n-i}+a_{n+i}<2a_n for 1≤i≤n−11\le i\le n-1. Is it true that every elf sequence has infinitely many hats?

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