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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.4 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Netherlands

Let n2n \ge 2 be an integer, and let z1,,znz_1, \dots, z_n be positive integers satisfying:
* zjjz_j \le j for j=1,,nj = 1, \dots, n;
* z1++znz_1 + \dots + z_n is even.
Prove that there exist s1,,sn{1,1}s_1, \dots, s_n \in \{-1, 1\} such that:
s1z1+s2z2++snzn=0. s_1z_1 + s_2z_2 + \dots + s_nz_n = 0.

Solution

We prove this with two-step induction to nn. For n=2n=2, it follows from the conditions that z1=z2=1z_1 = z_2 = 1, and so then z1z2=0z_1 - z_2 = 0.

For n=3n=3, it follows from the conditions that (z1,z2,z3)(z_1, z_2, z_3) equals (1,1,2)(1, 1, 2), (1,2,1)(1, 2, 1), or (1,2,3)(1, 2, 3). In these cases, we choose (s1,s2,s3)(s_1, s_2, s_3) to be equal to (1,1,1)(1, 1, -1), (1,1,1)(1, -1, 1), and (1,1,1)(1, 1, -1), respectively.

Now suppose we have proved the statement for n=kn=k and n=k1n=k-1, where k2k \ge 2. Let z1,,zk+1z_1, \dots, z_{k+1} be numbers that satisfy the conditions in the problem statement. We distinguish two cases.

First, suppose that zk=zk+1z_k = z_{k+1}. Applying the induction hypothesis for n=k1n=k-1 to z1,,zk1z_1, \dots, z_{k-1} we find s1,,sk1s_1, \dots, s_{k-1} such that s1z1++sk1zk1=0s_1z_1 + \dots + s_{k-1}z_{k-1} = 0. Now we also have that

s1z1++sk1zk1+zkzk+1=0, s_1z_1 + \dots + s_{k-1}z_{k-1} + z_k - z_{k+1} = 0,
which proves the statement in this case.

Now suppose that zkzk+1z_k \neq z_{k+1}. Then zkzk+11|z_k - z_{k+1}| \ge 1. In addition, we also know that zkzk+1k|z_k - z_{k+1}| \le k because 1zk,zk+1k+11 \le z_k, z_{k+1} \le k+1. Since zkzk+1=zk+zk+1(mod2)|z_k - z_{k+1}| = z_k + z_{k+1} \pmod 2, we also have that z1++zk1+zkzk+1z_1 + \dots + z_{k-1} + |z_k - z_{k+1}| is even. So we can apply the induction hypothesis for n=kn=k to z1,,zk1,zkzk+1z_1, \dots, z_{k-1}, |z_k - z_{k+1}|. As a result, we find s1,,sks_1, \dots, s_k such that:
s1z1++sk1zk1+skzkzk+1=0. s_1z_1 + \dots + s_{k-1}z_{k-1} + s_k|z_k - z_{k+1}| = 0.
Since zkzk+1=±(zkzk+1)|z_k - z_{k+1}| = \pm (z_k - z_{k+1}), this proves the statement. \square

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.