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Number theory Difficulty 7.5 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Ukraine

You are given n2n \ge 2 distinct positive integers. For each pair a<ba < b of these numbers, consider the difference bab - a. For each of these differences, Vlada writes down the maximum power of two by which this difference is divisible. What is the largest possible number of distinct numbers that Vlada could write?
(Oleksii Masalitin)

Solution

We will prove that there are at most n1n-1 different degrees with induction by nn. The base case for n=2n=2 is obvious, let's prove the transition. Let the statement be proved for kn1k \le n-1, let us prove it for nn numbers. Suppose that all numbers are divisible by the same power of 22: 2k2^k. If k>0k > 0, then we divide these numbers by 2k2^k, it is clear that the degree of occurrence of two in all differences has decreased by kk, so the number of distinct among them has not changed. If all the numbers are odd, then we can add 1, then none of the differences will change, and the numbers will all become even. We will repeat this operation. It is clear that the only odd number that does not decrease after the operations of addition 1 and division by the maximum degree of occurrence of two is 1. Since there are more than one number, the sum of these numbers will decrease after each pair of operations, so sooner or later we will get a set of numbers that are divisible by different degrees of twos.

Let's divide the numbers into groups A1,A2,,AmA_1, A_2, \dots, A_m, according to the degree of occurrence of two (the degrees are equal to α1<α2<<αm\alpha_1 < \alpha_2 < \dots < \alpha_m). It is clear that the difference aiaja_i - a_j for aiAi,ajAja_i \in A_i, a_j \in A_j (iji \ne j) is divisible by 2min(ai,aj)2^{\min(a_i, a_j)}, therefore, among the differences between different groups there are only m1m-1 different degrees. For each of these groups, the induction assumption can be applied, so the number of different powers of the differences of numbers from AiA_i does not exceed Ai1|A_i| - 1. Thus, the number of different degrees of occurrence is no more than
A11+A21++Am1+m1=A1+A2++Am1=n1. |A_1| - 1 + |A_2| - 1 + \cdots + |A_m| - 1 + m - 1 = |A_1| + |A_2| + \cdots + |A_m| - 1 = n - 1.

It remains to show that n1n - 1 different degrees are possible for any n2n \ge 2. Indeed, let us choose a1=1,a2=22+1,a3=23+1,...,an=2n+1a_1 = 1, a_2 = 2^2 + 1, a_3 = 2^3 + 1, ..., a_n = 2^n + 1. Then, the pairs (a1,ai)(a_1, a_i) for i=2,ni = 2, n have different degrees.

An alternative solution.
We prove that there are at most n1n-1 different degrees of occurrence. Indeed, let there be nn pairs in which the degrees of occurrence of 2 in the difference of the pair's numbers are pairwise different. Then consider the following graph with nn vertices. Each number is assigned a vertex, and two vertices are connected by an edge if their corresponding numbers form one of the considered nn pairs. It is clear that the total number of edges nn, so the graph in question has a cycle. Then let the numbers corresponding to the vertices of this cycle be a1,a2,...,ama_1, a_2, ..., a_m. Then the degrees of occurrence of the two in the difference a1a2,a2a3,...,ama1a_1 - a_2, a_2 - a_3, ..., a_m - a_1 are pairwise different. Without loss of generality, let the degree of occurrence of the twos, kk, in the number ama1a_m - a_1 be the smallest of them. Then all other differences are divisible by 2k+12^{k+1}, so a1a2am(mod 2k+1)a_1 \equiv a_2 \equiv \dots \equiv a_m (\text{mod } 2^{k+1}), so ama1a_m - a_1 is divisible by 2k+12^{k+1}, which contradicts the assumption. Example is the same as in previous solution.

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