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Algebra Difficulty 6.8 National Olympiad Prove it Iran

a sequence a1,a2,a_1, a_2, \dots of nonzero integer numbers is given such that for all nNn \in \mathbb{N}, if an=2αka_n = 2^\alpha k where kk is an odd integer and α\alpha is a non-negative integer, then:
an+1=2αk. a_{n+1} = 2^\alpha - k.
Prove that if this sequence is periodic, then for all nNn \in \mathbb{N} we have:
an+2=an. a_{n+2} = a_n.
(The sequence a1,a2,a_1, a_2, \dots is periodic iff there exists a natural number dd such that for all nNn \in \mathbb{N} we have an+d=ana_{n+d} = a_n.)

Solution

First we claim that:
nN, an+1an+1(mod2) \forall n \in \mathbb{N},\ a_{n+1} \equiv a_n + 1 \pmod{2}
Assume that an=2αka_n = 2^\alpha k where k1(mod2)k \equiv 1 \pmod{2} and αZ0\alpha \in \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0}. So we have:
an+an+1=2α(k+1)k1(mod2) a_n + a_{n+1} = 2^\alpha (k+1) - k \equiv 1 \pmod{2}
From the claim we can get that if {an}nN\{a_n\}_{n \in \mathbb{N}} is periodic, with a period dd, then dd is an even number.

For any even term in {an}\{a_n\}, as=2αk (α1)a_s = 2^\alpha k\ (\alpha \ge 1), we have:
as+1=2αk,as+2=1as+1=k+12α a_{s+1} = 2^\alpha - k,\quad a_{s+2} = 1 - a_{s+1} = k + 1 - 2^\alpha
Thus we have:
as+2=k+12α(2α1)+k2αk=as |a_{s+2}| = |k+1-2^\alpha| \le (2^\alpha - 1) + |k| \le 2^\alpha |k| = |a_s|
(The last inequality holds because: k1(2α1)0|k-1|(2^\alpha - 1) \ge 0.)

Which implies that asas+d|a_s| \ge |a_{s+d}|. So all the above inequalities take the equal sign. We obtain k0, k=1k=1as=as+2==2α, as+1=as+3==2α+1k \le 0,\ |k| = 1 \Rightarrow k = -1 \Rightarrow a_s = a_{s+2} = \dots = -2^\alpha,\ a_{s+1} = a_{s+3} = \dots = 2^\alpha + 1.

So nN, an=an+sd=an+sd+2=an+2\forall n \in \mathbb{N},\ a_n = a_{n+sd} = a_{n+sd+2} = a_{n+2}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.