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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it China

Let M{1,2,,2011}M \subseteq \{1, 2, \dots, 2011\} be a subset satisfying the following condition: For any three elements in MM, there exist two of them aa and bb, such that aba \mid b or bab \mid a. Determine, with proof, the maximum value of M|M|, where M|M| denotes the number of elements of MM. (posed by Feng Zhigang)

Solution

One can check that M={1,2,22,23,,210,3,3×2,3×22,,3×29}M = \{1, 2, 2^2, 2^3, \dots, 2^{10}, 3, 3 \times 2, 3 \times 2^2, \dots, 3 \times 2^9\} satisfies the condition, and M=21|M| = 21.

Suppose that M22|M| \ge 22, and let a1<a2<<aka_1 < a_2 < \dots < a_k be the elements of MM, where M=k22|M| = k \ge 22. We first prove that an+22ana_{n+2} \ge 2a_n for all nn; otherwise, we have an<an+1<an+2<2ana_n < a_{n+1} < a_{n+2} < 2a_n for some n<k+2n < k + 2, then any two of these three integers an,an+1,an+2a_n, a_{n+1}, a_{n+2} do not have any multiple relationship, which contradicts the assumption.

It follows from the inequality above that a42a24a_4 \ge 2a_2 \ge 4, a62a48a_6 \ge 2a_4 \ge 8, \dots, a222a20211>2011a_{22} \ge 2a_{20} \ge 2^{11} > 2011, which is a contradiction!

Hence, the maximum value of M|M| is 2121.
\square

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