Maths Olympiad Prep

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Number theory Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let nn be a positive integer and let SS be the set {1,2,,n}\{1,2, \ldots, n\}. Define a function f:SSf: S \rightarrow S by
f(x)={2x if 2xn,2n2x+1 otherwise.  f(x)= \begin{cases}2 x & \text{ if } 2 x \leq n, \\ 2 n-2 x+1 & \text{ otherwise. }\end{cases}
Define f2(x)=f(f(x)),f3(x)=f(f(f(x)))f^{2}(x)=f(f(x)), f^{3}(x)=f(f(f(x))), and so on. If mm is a positive integer satisfying fm(1)=1f^{m}(1)=1, prove that fm(k)=kf^{m}(k)=k for all kSk \in S.

Solution

Solution:
First note that
f(x)±2xmod2n+1 f(x) \equiv \pm 2 x \quad \bmod 2 n+1
It follows that
fp(x)±2pxmod2n+1 f^{p}(x) \equiv \pm 2^{p} x \quad \bmod 2 n+1
Thus if fm(1)=1f^{m}(1)=1, 2m±12^{m} \equiv \pm 1 and so, for any kSk \in S,
fm(k)±2mk±kmod2n+1 f^{m}(k) \equiv \pm 2^{m} k \equiv \pm k \quad \bmod 2 n+1
that is, fm(k)±k=j(2n+1)f^{m}(k) \pm k=j(2 n+1) for some integer jj and some choice of the sign. Since
0<1+1fm(k)+kn+n<2n+1, 0<1+1 \leq f^{m}(k)+k \leq n+n<2 n+1,
the plus sign is invalid. Thus the minus sign holds, and since
(2n+1)<1nfm(k)kn1<2n+1, -(2 n+1)<1-n \leq f^{m}(k)-k \leq n-1<2 n+1,
we get j=0j=0, i.e. fm(k)=kf^{m}(k)=k.

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