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Algebra Difficulty 6.5 National Olympiad Prove it Japan

Suppose ff is a positive integer-valued function defined for the set of positive integers satisfying for any pair of positive integers x,yx, y the following inequality:
(x+y)f(x)x2+f(xy)+110. (x + y)f(x) \leq x^2 + f(xy) + 110.
Determine the minimum and the maximum value of f(23)+f(2011)f(23) + f(2011) for this ff.

Solution

Let a=110a = 110. We will first show that a necessary and sufficient condition for a positive integer-valued function ff defined on the set positive integers to satisfy the given inequality is that ff satisfies the following simpler inequality:
()taf(t)tfor any positive integer t. (\dagger) \quad t - a \le f(t) \le t \quad \text{for any positive integer } t.
To see this, first note that for any positive integer ss, substituting (x,y)=(s,1)(x, y) = (s, 1) into the given inequality, we obtain (s+1)f(s)s2+f(s)+a(s+1)f(s) \le s^2 + f(s) + a, from which we get f(s)s+asf(s) \le s + \frac{a}{s}. Next, for any positive integer tt, substitute (x,y)=(t,2a)(x, y) = (t, 2a) into the given inequality and using the fact f(2at)2at+12tf(2at) \le 2at + \frac{1}{2t} which follows from the result above, we get
(t+2a)f(t)t2+f(2at)+at2+2at+12t+a, (t + 2a)f(t) \le t^2 + f(2at) + a \le t^2 + 2at + \frac{1}{2t} + a,
which yields further that
f(t)t+12t(t+2a)+at+2a<t+12+12=t+1. f(t) \le t + \frac{1}{2t(t + 2a)} + \frac{a}{t + 2a} < t + \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{2} = t + 1.
Since ff is positive integer-valued, we conclude that 1f(t)t1 \le f(t) \le t, and in particular, f(1)=1f(1) = 1. Finally, substituting (x,y)=(1,t)(x, y) = (1, t) into the given inequality, we get (1+t)11+f(t)+a(1+t) \cdot 1 \le 1 + f(t) + a, from which we get taf(t)t - a \le f(t), and thus we have shown that the function ff satisfying the given inequality satisfies the inequality ()(\dagger) for any positive integer tt.
Conversely, suppose a positive integer-valued function ff satisfies the inequality ()(\dagger) for any positive integer tt. Then, for any pair of positive integers x,yx, y, we have
(x+y)f(x)(x+y)x=x2+(xya)+ax2+f(xy)+a, (x + y)f(x) \le (x + y)x = x^2 + (xy - a) + a \le x^2 + f(xy) + a,
so that ff satisfies the inequality given for the problem.
Thus, if ff satisfies the given inequality, then we have
1f(23)23,1901=2011110f(2011)2011, 1 \le f(23) \le 23, \quad 1901 = 2011 - 110 \le f(2011) \le 2011,
and since the value of f(23)f(23) and f(2011)f(2011) can be chosen to take any of the integer values in [1,23][1, 23] and [1901,2011][1901, 2011], we conclude that the minimum possible value for f(23)+f(2011)f(23) + f(2011) is 1+1901=19021 + 1901 = 1902 and the maximum possible value is 23+2011=203423 + 2011 = 2034.

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