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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it Bulgaria

The sides and diagonals of a regular nn-gon are colored in k3k \ge 3 colors. For each color ii, between every two vertices of the polygon there exists a path consisting only of segments of color ii. Prove that there exist three vertices of the polygon AA, BB, and CC such that the line segments ABAB, BCBC, and ACAC are multicolor.

(Emil Kolev)

Solution

We need to prove that in a complete graph with nn vertices and kk colors, where the induced graph on each color is connected, there exists a multicolor triangle. Denote the colors by 11, 22, 33, \ldots, kk and recolor all edges that are in any of the colors 44, 55, \ldots, kk into color 33. The new graph satisfies the condition of connectivity on each color and if there is a multicolored triangle for it, then the same triangle in the initial graph will also be multicolored. Therefore, we can consider that k=3k = 3.

Suppose that the statement is not true for a graph GG, as we can choose GG to have a minimal number of vertices. It follows from the minimality of GG that after removing any vertex, the new graph will not be connected by any of the colors, and let it be color 11. Denote by G1,G2,,GtG_1, G_2, \dots, G_t the color connectivity components 11 after deleting vertex AA. Since GG is color 11 connected, there exist AiGiA_i \in G_i for which AAiAA_i is color 11. The segment A1A2A_1A_2 is not color 11 because G1G_1 and G2G_2 are different components of connectivity. Let it be of color 22. If A1BA_1B is a color 11 segment of G1G_1, then the segment A2BA_2B cannot be of color 11 because G1G_1 and G2G_2 are different connectivity components; cannot be of color 33, because then A1A2BA_1A_2B is a multicolor triangle and is therefore of color 22. Analogously, it is proved that all segments between the points of G1G_1 and G2G_2 are of color 22. We obtained that all segments between any two connectivity components are either color 22 or color 33.

Now consider segments AXAX and AYAY in colors 22 and 33, respectively (such segments exist, since GG is connected in each of the colors). Without limitation, we have the following two cases:

1. X,YG1X, Y \in G_1, then one of the triangles AXA2AXA_2 and AYA2AYA_2 is multicolored.

2. XG1X \in G_1 and YG2Y \in G_2, then one of the triangles AXA2AXA_2 and AYA1AYA_1 is multicolored.

The resulting contradiction shows that for every graph with the given properties there exists a multicolored triangle. \Box

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