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Taiwan IMO Selection Camp

Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it Taiwan

The infinite sequence of positive integers a1,a2,…,an,…a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n, \dots satisfies: for any positive integers m,nm, n, m+nm + n divides am+ana_m + a_n, and for any positive integer nn, an≤n100a_n \le n^{100}. Prove that there exists a polynomial f(x)f(x) such that for any positive integer nn, f(n)=anf(n) = a_n.

Solution

First, for any m<nm < n, let k=n−mk = n - m, and take a positive integer tt such that tk>ntk > n. Consider that tktk divides an+atk−na_n + a_{tk-n} and (t−1)k(t-1)k divides am+atk−na_m + a_{tk-n}, from which we obtain that ana_n and ama_m have the same remainder upon division by kk, that is, n−mn - m divides an−ama_n - a_m.
By Lagrange interpolation, there exists a polynomial f(x)f(x) with rational coefficients of degree at most 100 such that for k=1,2,…,101k = 1, 2, \dots, 101, we have f(k)=akf(k) = a_k. We now prove that f(n)=anf(n) = a_n.
Let NN be a positive integer such that Nf(x)Nf(x) is a polynomial with integer coefficients. Consider the function hh defined on the set of integers by h(n)=N(f(n)−an)h(n) = N(f(n) - a_n); then hh takes the value 00 at 11 through 101101, and, by what was stated in the first paragraph together with the fact that Nf(x)Nf(x) is a polynomial with integer coefficients, hh satisfies (n−m)∣(h(n)−h(m))(n-m)|(h(n)-h(m)). Moreover, since f(x)f(x) is a polynomial of degree at most 100, from an≤n100a_n \le n^{100} we know there exists a constant M>0M > 0 such that ∣h(n)∣≤M(n100+1)|h(n)| \le M(n^{100} + 1).
For any positive integer nn, compare h(n)h(n) and h(k)h(k), where k=1,…,101k = 1, \dots, 101. Since h(k)=0h(k) = 0, from (n−k)∣(h(n)−h(k))(n-k)|(h(n)-h(k)) we get that h(n)h(n) must be a multiple of (n−101),…,(n−1)(n-101), \dots, (n-1); the pairwise common factors of these numbers are at most 100, so their least common multiple is ≥(n−101)101/(1005050)\ge (n-101)^{101}/(100^{5050}), and h(n)h(n) must be a multiple of their least common multiple. When nn is sufficiently large, we have (n−101)101/(1005050)>M(n100+1)(n-101)^{101}/(100^{5050}) > M(n^{100}+1), and at this point we conclude h(n)=0h(n) = 0.
For any integer mm, for any sufficiently large nn we have (n−m)∣h(m)(n-m)|h(m), and hence h(m)=0h(m) = 0, which completes the proof!

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