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Combinatorics Difficulty 9.1 IMO level Prove it United States

Let nn be a given integer with nn greater than 77, and let P\mathcal{P} be a convex polygon with nn sides. Any set of n3n-3 diagonals of P\mathcal{P} that do not intersect in the interior of the polygon determine a triangulation of P\mathcal{P} into n2n-2 triangles. A triangle in the triangulation of P\mathcal{P} is an interior triangle if all of its sides are diagonals of P\mathcal{P}.

Express, in terms of nn, the number of triangulations of P\mathcal{P} with exactly two interior triangles, in closed form.

Solution

The answer is
n2n9(n44) n2^{n-9} \binom{n-4}{4}
Denote the vertices of P\mathcal{P} counter-clockwise by A0,A1,,An1A_0, A_1, \dots, A_{n-1}. We will count first the number of triangulations of P\mathcal{P} with two interior triangles positioned as in the following figure. We say that such a triangulation starts at A0A_0.

Figure 1

The numbers m1,m2,n1,n2,n3,n4m_1, m_2, n_1, n_2, n_3, n_4 in the figure denote the number of sides of PP determining the regions N1,N2,N3,N4N_1, N_2, N_3, N_4 and MM that consist of exterior triangles (triangles that are not interior). The two interior triangles are
A0An1An1+n2 and An1+n2+m1An1+n2+m1+n3An1+n2+m1+n3+n4, A_0 A_{n_1} A_{n_1+n_2} \text{ and } A_{n_1+n_2+m_1} A_{n_1+n_2+m_1+n_3} A_{n_1+n_2+m_1+n_3+n_4},
respectively.

We will show that triangulations starting at A0A_0 are in bijective correspondence to 7-tuples
(m,n1,n2,n3,n4,wM,wN), (m, n_1, n_2, n_3, n_4, w_M, w_N),
where m0m \ge 0, n1,n2,n3,n42n_1, n_2, n_3, n_4 \ge 2 are integers,
m+n1+n2+n3+n4=n,() m + n_1 + n_2 + n_3 + n_4 = n, \qquad (\dagger)
wMw_M is a binary sequence (sequence of 0's and 1's) of length mm and wNw_N is a binary sequence of length nm8n - m - 8.

Indeed, given a triangulation as in the figure, the numbers m=m1+m2m = m_1 + m_2 and n1,n2,n3,n4n_1, n_2, n_3, n_4 satisfy ()(\dagger) and the associated constraints.

Further, the triangulation of the outside region N1N_1 determines a binary sequence of length n12n_1 - 2 as follows. Denote the exterior triangle in N1N_1 using the diagonal A0An1A_0 A_{n_1} by T1T_1. If n13n_1 \ge 3, T1T_1 has a unique neighboring exterior triangle in N1N_1, denoted T2T_2. If n14n_1 \ge 4, the triangle T2T_2 has another neighbor in N1N_1 denoted T3T_3, etc. Thus we have a sequence of n11n_1 - 1 exterior triangles in N1N_1. We encode this sequence as follows. If T1T_1 uses the vertex A1A_1 as its third vertex we encode this by 00 and if it uses An11A_{n_1-1} we encode this by 11. In each case there are two possible choices for the third vertex in T2T_2. If the one with smaller index is used we encode this by 00 and if the one with larger index is used we encode this by 11. Eventually, a sequence of n12n_1 - 2 00's and 11's is constructed describing the choice of the third vertex in the triangles T1,,Tn12T_1, \dots, T_{n_1-2}. Finally, there is only one choice for the third vertex in the triangle Tn11T_{n_1-1} (this triangle is uniquely determined by the previous one), so we get 2n122^{n_1-2} possible triangulations of N1N_1 encoded in a binary sequence of length n12n_1 - 2. Similarly, there are 2n122^{n_1-2} triangulations of the region NiN_i, i=1,2,3,4i = 1, 2, 3, 4, encoded by binary sequences of length ni2n_i - 2. Thus a binary sequence wNw_N of length n12+n22+n32+n42=nm8n_1 - 2 + n_2 - 2 + n_3 - 2 + n_4 - 2 = n - m - 8, uniquely determines the triangulations of the regions N1,N2,N3,N4N_1, N_2, N_3, N_4 (once the regions are precisely determined within PP, which is done once m1,m2,n1,n2,n3m_1, m_2, n_1, n_2, n_3 and n4n_4 are known).

It remains to uniquely encode the triangulation of the middle region MM. Denote by M1M_1 the unique exterior triangle in MM using the diagonal A0An1+n2A_0A_{n_1+n_2}. If m2m \ge 2, M1M_1 has a unique neighboring exterior triangle M2M_2 in MM. If m3m \ge 3, the triangle M2M_2 has another neighbor in MM denoted M3M_3, etc. Thus we have a sequence of mm exterior triangles in MM. We encode this sequence as follows. If M1M_1 uses the vertex An1+n2+1A_{n_1+n_2+1} as its third vertex we encode this by 00 and if it uses An1A_{n-1} we encode this by 11. In each case there are two possible choices for the third vertex in M2M_2. If the one with smaller index is used we encode this by 00 and if the one with larger index is used we encode this by 11. Eventually, a sequence of mm 00's and 11's is constructed describing the choice of the third vertex in the triangles M1,,MmM_1, \dots, M_m. Thus a binary sequence wMw_M of length mm uniquely determines the triangulation of the region MM. In addition such a sequence wMw_M uniquely determines m1m_1 and m2m_2 as the number of 00's and 11's respectively in wMw_M and therefore also the exact position of the middle region MM within PP (once n1n_1 and n2n_2 are known), which in turn then exactly determines the position of all the regions considered in the figure.

The number of solutions of the equation ()(\dagger) subject to the given constraints is equal to the number of positive integer solutions to the equation
x1+x2+x3+x4+x5=n3, x_1 + x_2 + x_3 + x_4 + x_5 = n - 3,
which is (n44)\binom{n-4}{4} (a sequence of n3n-3 objects is split into 55 nonempty groups by placing 44 separators in the n4n-4 available positions between the objects). Thus the number of 77-tuples (m,n1,n2,n3,n4,wM,wN)(m, n_1, n_2, n_3, n_4, w_M, w_N) describing triangulations as in the figure is
2m2nm8(n44)=2n8(n44). 2^m \cdot 2^{n-m-8} \binom{n-4}{4} = 2^{n-8} \binom{n-4}{4}.

Finally, in order to get the total number of triangulations we multiply the above number by nn (since we could start building the triangulation at any vertex rather than at A0A_0) and divide by 22 (since every triangulation is now counted twice, once as starting at one of the interior triangles and once as starting at the other).

Thus, the answer is
n2n9(n44) n2^{n-9} \binom{n-4}{4}

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