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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Serbia

Problem:

Two players play the following game. The players alternately write down a natural number greater than one, whereby it is not allowed to write down a linear combination of previously written numbers with nonnegative integer coefficients. The player who cannot write down a new number loses the game. Does one of the players have a winning strategy and, if so, which one? (Aleksandar Ilić / "Kvant")

Solution

Solution:

For a,bNa, b \in \mathbb{N} let us define L{a,b}={ax+byx,yN0}\mathcal{L}\{a, b\} = \left\{ a x + b y \mid x, y \in \mathbb{N}_0 \right\}. We shall first prove an auxiliary claim.

Lemma. Let a>1a > 1 and b>1b > 1 be coprime natural numbers.

(a) N=ababN = a b - a - b is the largest natural number not in the set L{a,b}\mathcal{L}\{a, b\}.

(б) For every zZz \in \mathbb{Z}, zL{a,b}z \in \mathcal{L}\{a, b\} if and only if NzL{a,b}N - z \notin \mathcal{L}\{a, b\}.

Proof. (a) If N=(b1)ab=ax+byN = (b-1)a - b = a x + b y for some x{0,,b1}x \in \{0, \ldots, b-1\} and yZy \in \mathbb{Z}, then xb1(modb)x \equiv b-1 \pmod{b}, so xb1x \geqslant b-1 and hence y<0y < 0; therefore, NL{a,b}N \notin \mathcal{L}\{a, b\}.

(б) It is clear that zL{a,b}z \in \mathcal{L}\{a, b\} implies NzL{a,b}N-z \notin \mathcal{L}\{a, b\} (otherwise it would hold that N=z+(Nz)L{a,b}N = z + (N-z) \in \mathcal{L}\{a, b\}). Let us now consider some zZL{a,b}z \in \mathbb{Z} \setminus \mathcal{L}\{a, b\}. If x{0,,b1}x \in \{0, \ldots, b-1\} is such that axz(modb)a x \equiv z \pmod{b}, then z<axz < a x, i.e., axby=za x - b y = z for some yNy \in \mathbb{N}. Then Nx=(b1x)a+b(y1)L{a,b}N - x = (b-1-x)a + b(y-1) \in \mathcal{L}\{a, b\}.

Let player A start the game by writing down a prime number a5a \geqslant 5, after which player B writes down a natural number bb such that aba \nmid b. Only finitely many natural numbers do not belong to the set L{a,b}\mathcal{L}\{a, b\}, so the game is finite. Therefore, one of the players has a winning strategy.

Let us consider the game in which player A's second move is the number NN. If that is a losing move, then B now has a winning response in the form of some allowed number cc. However, then player A can, on the second move, instead of the number NN, write down the number cc, and thereafter follow the winning strategy of the other player. Indeed, by the lemma, the number NcN-c is not allowed, so after the move cc the number N=(Nc)+cN = (N-c) + c is also not allowed, so B remains precisely in the position which would be losing for A.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from sr; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.