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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, ann100a_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=nmk = n - m, and take a positive integer tt such that tk>ntk > n. Consider that tktk divides an+atkna_n + a_{tk-n} and (t1)k(t-1)k divides am+atkna_m + a_{tk-n}, from which we obtain that ana_n and ama_m have the same remainder upon division by kk, that is, nmn - m divides anama_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 (nm)(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 ann100a_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 (nk)(h(n)h(k))(n-k)|(h(n)-h(k)) we get that h(n)h(n) must be a multiple of (n101),,(n1)(n-101), \dots, (n-1); the pairwise common factors of these numbers are at most 100, so their least common multiple is (n101)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 (n101)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 (nm)h(m)(n-m)|h(m), and hence h(m)=0h(m) = 0, which completes the proof!

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