Let be the set of positive integers which is not divisible by any prime number greater than . For arbitrary chosen subsets of , prove that there exist two distinct positive integers and such that:
For each in , has a divisor of .
Solution
Regard as a set of lattice points by
where is the set of nonnegative integers. For two elements , we denote if and . Also we denote if and . Then the problem can be interpreted as:
for any , there exist satisfying s.t. .
In this case we will say that the collection is "nice".
A reduced set is a subset of satisfying s.t. . Since a reduced set may have at most one point in (resp. ), it is a finite set. Moreover, if a reduced set has then holds. Obviously, we may assume that each is a reduced set.
Lemma 1. Given a collection , suppose that there are no points in which are contained in infinitely many 's. Then the collection is nice.
Before proving the Main lemma, we introduce a result for a special case.
Corollary 2. Given a collection , if there exists such that for all , then the collection is nice.
Proof. (mathematical induction) In case , it is easy. Assume . If the collection satisfies the condition in Lemma 1 then it is done. If the collection does not satisfy the condition, i.e., which is contained in infinitely many 's. Set be the collection of 's containing . From the induction hypothesis, is nice, which induces easily that is nice. Thus the collection is also nice.
Let us go back to the original problem. If satisfies the condition in Lemma 1 then it is done. Otherwise s.t. is contained in infinitely many 's, then each cardinality of is bounded by (recall that 's are reduced sets). Thus from the corollary 2, the collection of 's containing is nice, and so does the original collection , which completes the proof.
Now we only left the proof of Lemma 1.
Proof. (Lemma 1) For nonnegative integer , define . If is a finite set then by the hypothesis of Lemma 1, only finitely many 's contribute to . So we may delete this finitely many 's.
1. Suppose is finite for all . Among the points in take , where is the smallest coordinate of points in and is the smallest coordinate of points with coordinate are all . By relabeling, set . From the collection , remove all the 's (except ) which contribute to . Note that only the finite number of 's are removed. Thus the collection of remaining elements (including ) is nice (by taking as ).
2. Suppose there exists such that is infinite. Among these , let be the smallest element. Since each is finite, infinitely many 's contribute to . Set be the infinitely many collection for . Define . If all the are finite, then is nice. So assume there exists such that is infinite. Among these , let be the smallest element. Since each is finite, infinitely many 's contribute to . Set be the infinitely many collection for . Note that , . Thus if and then the number of set 's which contribute to is finite. So removing these 's (except ) from the collection yields an infinite subcollection — of . By taking or as , we can prove that is nice.