Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /8 of 10

Combinatorics Difficulty 8.9 Shortlist Prove it Vietnam

Let n3n \ge 3 be an integer and SS be a set of nn elements. Determine the largest integer knk_n such that: for each selection of knk_n 3-subsets of SS, there exists a way to color elements of SS with two colors such that none of the chosen 3-subset is monochromatic.

Solution

The answer to the problem depends on the values of nn. We have the following cases

* If n=3n = 3 then it is obvious that kn=1k_n = 1.

* If n=4n = 4 then kn=4k_n = 4 because A4A_4 has 4 subsets with 3 elements. For example, color (1, 2) blue and (3, 4) red. Each set contains one of the two numbers above, so it has two colors.

* If n=5n = 5 then kn10k_n \le 10 because A5A_5 has 10 subsets with 3 elements. According to pigeonhole principle, since n=5n = 5, there are at least 3 elements of A5A_5 of the same color, so the subset with these 3 elements does not satisfy the problem. So kn9k_n \le 9. For kn=9k_n = 9, say {x,y,z}\{x, y, z\} is a subset that is not taken. Coloring x,y,zx, y, z in red and the other two numbers in blue. Since K={x,y,z}K = \{x, y, z\} is not chosen, and A5K=2|A_5 \setminus K| = 2, every selected subset has an element of KK and an element that is not in KK. Therefore, every selected subset has two different colors.

* If n=6n = 6, since k5=9k_5 = 9 then k610k_6 \le 10 because one can take 10 subsets of A5A_5 that can not be colored to satisfy the problem. We show that 9 is the answer in this case. Since there are 10 pairs of 3-subsets of A6A_6, and the union of two subsets each is equal to A6A_6, there exists a pair where both sets are not selected. Coloring the first set in green, the second set in red. Obviously every selected subset intersects with one of the above two subsets, since if it doesn't intersect the first set then it has at most 3 elements, and it must be the second set, a contradiction. So k6=9k_6 = 9.

Finally n7n \ge 7 is the hardest case. Consider the following subsets {1,2,3},{1,4,5},{1,6,7},{2,4,6},{2,5,7},{3,4,7},{3,5,6}\{1, 2, 3\}, \{1, 4, 5\}, \{1, 6, 7\}, \{2, 4, 6\}, \{2, 5, 7\}, \{3, 4, 7\}, \{3, 5, 6\}.
We will show that there is no satisfactory coloring of AnA_n in this case. Assuming 1 is blue, then (2, 3), (4, 5), (6, 7) have a symmetrical role, and each pair can't all be blue. If (2, 3) is both red then 4 or 6 is blue, assuming 4 is blue, then 5 is red because {1,4,5}\{1, 4, 5\} cannot be the same green. Since {3,5,6}\{3, 5, 6\} is not the same red, 6 is blue. Finally, {2,5,7}\{2, 5, 7\} is not all red, {1,6,7}\{1, 6, 7\} is not all green so there is no way to color the number 7.

Next, consider the case of 2 is blue and 3 is red. As mentioned, (4, 5) and (6, 7) have a symmetric role. Similarly for (2, 3) then these pairs do not have the same color. Now, it is easy to see that 4 cases of color of pairs (4, 5) and (6, 7) lead to absurdity. For example 4, 6 is in the same set as 2 and 3 so they cannot be the same color and neither 4, 7.

Let A1,A2,,A6A_1, A_2, \dots, A_6 be the selected sets and A=A1A6A = A_1 \cup \dots \cup A_6. We prove the problem according to the maximum number of times an element of AA belongs to one of 6 chosen subset. Assume 1A1 \in A is the element that occurs most times. In the argument below, a set is said to be selected if it is some AiA_i with i{1,,6}i \in \{1, \dots, 6\}.

* If 1 appears 6 times then color 1 red and A{1}A \setminus \{1\} green. Since 1 belongs to a set of 6, each set has a red element and only 1 of red elements, so each set has 2 of blue elements.

* If 1 appears 5 times then color 1 in red. Assume A6={x,y,z}A_6 = \{x, y, z\} does not contain 1. Color xx red, yy and zz green. Since there are 2 red elements, there is no set that has 3 red elements and since A1,A2,,A5A_1, A_2, \dots, A_5 contains 1, they have at least one red element.

* If 1 appears 4 times, assume A5A_5 and A6A_6 do not contain 1. If there exists xx that both belong to A5A_5 and A6A_6, color 1, xx in red and the remaining elements of AnA_n in blue. The statement can be proved as in previous case. Conversely, if A5A6=A_5 \cap A_6 = \emptyset then there are 9 pairs (a,b)(a, b) where aA5a \in A_5 and bA6b \in A_6. Since there is only 4 subset containing 1, according to the pigeonhole principle there exist aA5a \in A_5 and bA6b \in A_6 such that {1,a,b}\{1, a, b\} is not selected. Color 1, aa, bb red and the rest of the elements blue. Since there are exactly 3 of red elements and {1,a,b}\{1, a, b\} is not selected, every set has two colors.

* If 1 appears 3 times and is not in A4,A5,A6A_4, A_5, A_6. Let xx be the element that belongs to the most sets in this set 3. If xx appears 3 times then color 1, xx in red and this way satisfies the problem. If xx occurs twice, and is not in A6A_6, then we show that there is yA6y \in A_6 so that {1,x,y}\{1, x, y\} is not selected. Indeed, xx appears at most 3 times because 1 occurs the most, but xA4,A5x \in A_4, A_5 so it is chosen in 1 other subset. So there is an element of A6A_6 which is yy so that {1,x,y}\{1, x, y\} is not selected. Fill these three elements with red, the rest with blue to satisfy the problem. Finally, if every element in A4,A5,A6A_4, A_5, A_6 appears exactly 1 times, similar to the case where 1 appears 4 times, we will show there is
(x,y,z)A4×A5×A6 (x, y, z) \in A_4 \times A_5 \times A_6
such that the subsets A1,A2,A3A_1, A_2, A_3 do not have the form {1,a,b}\{1, a, b\} where a,b{x,y,z}a, b \in \{x, y, z\}. There are 3 pairs (a,b)(a, b) for which {1,a,b}\{1, a, b\} is chosen. However, for a pair (a,b)(a, b), there exists at most 7 elements cc belonging to A4A5A6A_4 \cup A_5 \cup A_6 so that (a,b,c)A4×A5×A6(a, b, c) \in A_4 \times A_5 \times A_6. Thus, there are at most 21 tuples (a,b,c)A4×A5×A6(a, b, c) \in A_4 \times A_5 \times A_6 such that two of three elements of this tuple together with 1 form a chosen set. There are 27 tuples (x,y,z)A4×A5×A6(x, y, z) \in A_4 \times A_5 \times A_6 so there is a tuple (x,y,z)(x, y, z) that every 2 of its elements does not form with 1 a selected set. Coloring 1, x,y,zx, y, z in red and the remaining numbers in blue to satisfy the problem.

* If 1 appears 2 times and belongs to A1,A2A_1, A_2. Assume 2 is the element that occurs most times in A3A6A_3 \cup \dots \cup A_6. We have the following cases

- If 2 occurs 2 times in A3,,A6A_3, \dots, A_6, then 1 and 2 do not appear together. We consider 1 and 2 to be the same element xx and xx that appear 4 times, reducing the problem to the case where 1 occurs 4 times.
- If 2 occurs 1 times, that means A3A6A_3 \cup \dots \cup A_6 has 12 elements and there exists an element that is not in A1A2A_1 \cup A_2. Assuming it's yy, again let 1 and yy be the same element xx appearing 3 times, reducing the problem to the case where 1 occurs 3 times.

* If 1 appears 1 times, then every element appear once. Choose an arbitrary element from each set and color them red. Other elements are blue.

So we have k3=1,k4=4,k5=k6=9k_3 = 1, k_4 = 4, k_5 = k_6 = 9 and kn=6,n7k_n = 6, \forall n \ge 7. \square

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.