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Combinatorics Difficulty 9.2 IMO level Prove it South Africa

The liars guessing game is a game played between two players A and B. The rules of the game depend on two positive integers k and n which are known to both players.

At the start of the game A chooses integers xx and NN with 1xN1 \le x \le N. Player A keeps xx secret, and truthfully tells NN to player B. Player B now tries to obtain information about xx by asking player A questions as follows: each question consists of B specifying an arbitrary set SS of positive integers (possibly one specified in some previous question), and asking A whether xx belongs to SS. Player B may ask as many such questions as he wishes. After each question, player A must immediately answer it with yes or no, but is allowed to lie as many times as she wants; the only restriction is that, among any k+1k+1 consecutive answers, at least one answer must be truthful.

After BB has asked as many questions as he wants, he must specify a set XX of at most nn positive integers. If xx belongs to XX, then BB wins; otherwise, he loses. Prove that:

a. If n2kn \ge 2^k, then BB can guarantee a win.

b. For all sufficiently large kk, there exists an integer n1.99kn \ge 1.99^k such that BB cannot guarantee a win.

Solution

The game can be reformulated in an equivalent one: The player AA chooses an element xx from the set SS (with S=N|S| = N) and the player BB asks the sequence of questions. The jj-th question consists of BB choosing a set DjSD_j \subseteq S and player AA selecting a set Pj{Qj,QjC}P_j \in \{Q_j, Q_j^C\}. The player AA has to make sure that for every j1j \ge 1 the following relation holds:
xPjPj+1Pj+k. x \in P_j \cup P_{j+1} \cup \dots \cup P_{j+k}.
The player BB wins if after a finite number of steps he can choose a set XX with Xn|X| \le n such that xXx \in X.

a.
It suffices to prove that if N2k+1N \ge 2^k + 1 then the player BB can determine a set SSS' \subseteq S with SN1|S'| \le N - 1 such that xSx \in S'.

Assume that N2k+1N \ge 2^k + 1. In the first move BB selects any set D1SD_1 \subseteq S such that D12k1|D_1| \ge 2^{k-1} and D1C2k1|D_1^C| \ge 2^{k-1}. After receiving the set P1P_1 from AA, BB makes the second move. The player BB selects a set D2SD_2 \subseteq S such that D2P1C2k2|D_2 \cap P_1^C| \ge 2^{k-2} and D2CP1C2k2|D_2^C \cap P_1^C| \ge 2^{k-2}. The player BB continues this way: in the move jj he/she chooses a set DjD_j such that DjPjC2kj|D_j \cap P_j^C| \ge 2^{k-j} and DjCPjC2kj|D_j^C \cap P_j^C| \ge 2^{k-j}.

In this way the player BB has obtained the sets P1,P2,,PkP_1, P_2, \dots, P_k such that (P1Pk)C1(P_1 \cup \dots \cup P_k)^C \ge 1. Then BB chooses the set Dk+1D_{k+1} to be a singleton containing any element outside of P1PkP_1 \cup \dots \cup P_k. There are two cases now:

Case 1. The player AA selects Pk+1=Dk+1CP_{k+1} = D_{k+1}^C. Then BB can take S=SDk+1S' = S \setminus D_{k+1} and the statement is proved.

Case 2. The player AA selects Pk+1=Dk+1P_{k+1} = D_{k+1}. Now the player BB repeats the previous procedure on the set S1=SDk+1S_1 = S \setminus D_{k+1} to obtain the sequence of sets Pk+2,Pk+3,,P2k+1P_{k+2}, P_{k+3}, \dots, P_{2k+1}. The following inequality holds:
S1(Pk+2P2k+1)1, |S_1 \setminus (P_{k+2} \cdots P_{2k+1})| \ge 1,
since S12k|S_1| \ge 2^k. However, now we have
(Pk+1Pk+2P2k+1)C1, |(P_{k+1} \cup P_{k+2} \cup \dots \cup P_{2k+1})^C| \ge 1,
and we may take S=Pk+1P2k+1S' = P_{k+1} \cup \dots \cup P_{2k+1}.

b.
Let pp and qq be two real numbers such that 1.99<p<q<21.99 < p < q < 2. Let us choose k0k_0 such that
(pq)k02(1q2)andpk1.99k>1. \left(\frac{p}{q}\right)^{k_0} \le 2 \cdot \left(1 - \frac{q}{2}\right) \quad \text{and} \quad p^k - 1.99^k > 1.
We will prove that for every kk0k \ge k_0 if S(1.99k,pk)|S| \in (1.99^k, p^k) then there is a strategy for the player AA to select sets P1,P2,P_1, P_2, \dots (based on sets D1,D2,D_1, D_2, \dots provided by BB) such that for each jj the following relation holds:
PjPj+1Pj+k=S. P_j \cup P_{j+1} \cup \dots \cup P_{j+k} = S.
Assuming that S={1,2,,N}S = \{1, 2, \dots, N\}, the player AA will maintain the following sequence of NN-tuples: (x)j=0=(x10,x20,,xN0)(\mathbf{x})_{j=0}^{\infty} = (x_1^0, x_2^0, \dots, x_N^0). Initially we set x10=x20==xN0=1x_1^0 = x_2^0 = \dots = x_N^0 = 1. After the set PjP_j is selected then we define xj+1\mathbf{x}^{j+1} based on xj\mathbf{x}^j as follows:
xij+1={1,if iPjqxij,if iPj. x_i^{j+1} = \begin{cases} 1, & \text{if } i \in P_j \\ q \cdot x_i^j, & \text{if } i \notin P_j. \end{cases}
The player AA can keep BB from winning if xijqkx_i^j \le q^k for each pair (i,j)(i, j). For a sequence x\mathbf{x}, let us define T(x)=i=1NxiT(\mathbf{x}) = \sum_{i=1}^N x_i. It suffices for player AA to make sure that T(xj)qkT(\mathbf{x}^j) \le q^k for each jj.

Notice that T(x0)=Npk<qkT(\mathbf{x}^0) = N \le p^k < q^k.

We will now prove that given xj\mathbf{x}^j such that T(xj)qkT(\mathbf{x}^j) \le q^k, and a set Dj+1D_{j+1} the player AA can choose Pj+1{Dj+1,Dj+1C}P_{j+1} \in \{D_{j+1}, D_{j+1}^C\} such that T(xj+1)qkT(\mathbf{x}^{j+1}) \le q^k. Let y\mathbf{y} be the sequence that would be obtained if Pj+1=Dj+1P_{j+1} = D_{j+1}, and let z\mathbf{z} be the sequence that would be obtained if Pj+1=Dj+1CP_{j+1} = D_{j+1}^C. Then we have
T(y)=iDj+1Cqxij+Dj+1 T(\mathbf{y}) = \sum_{i \in D_{j+1}^C} q x_i^j + |D_{j+1}|
T(z)=iDj+1qxij+Dj+1C. T(\mathbf{z}) = \sum_{i \in D_{j+1}} q x_i^j + |D_{j+1}^C|.
Summing up the previous two equalities gives:
T(y)+T(z)=qT(xj)+Nqk+1+pk, hence T(\mathbf{y}) + T(\mathbf{z}) = q \cdot T(\mathbf{x}^j) + N \le q^{k+1} + p^k, \text{ hence}
min{T(y),T(z)}q2qk+pk2qk, \min \{T(\mathbf{y}), T(\mathbf{z})\} \le \frac{q}{2} \cdot q^k + \frac{p^k}{2} \le q^k,
because of our choice of k0k_0.

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