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Romania — NMO Selection Tests for the Balkan and International Mathematical Olympiads

Algebra Difficulty 8.6 Shortlist Prove it Romania

Determine all injective functions ff of the set of positive integers into itself satisfying the following condition: If SS is a finite set of positive integers such that ∑s∈S1/s\sum_{s \in S} 1/s is an integer, then ∑s∈S1/f(s)\sum_{s \in S} 1/f(s) is also an integer.

Solution

We shall prove that the identity is the unique function satisfying the conditions in the statement. Clearly, f(1)=1f(1) = 1, so f(n)≥2f(n) \ge 2 if n≥2n \ge 2, by injectivity. We will use the following well-known result.

Egyptian fractions theorem. For every positive rational rr and positive integer nn, there exists a finite set SS of integers greater than nn such that r=∑s∈S1/sr = \sum_{s \in S} 1/s.

Now, consider an integer n≥2n \ge 2 and use the Egyptian fractions theorem to write
1−1n=∑s∈S1s, where S is a finite set of integers greater than n(n+1), and 1 - \frac{1}{n} = \sum_{s \in S} \frac{1}{s}, \text{ where } S \text{ is a finite set of integers greater than } n(n+1), \text{ and}
get thereby
1=1n+∑s∈S1s=1n+1+1n(n+1)+∑s∈S1s. 1 = \frac{1}{n} + \sum_{s \in S} \frac{1}{s} = \frac{1}{n+1} + \frac{1}{n(n+1)} + \sum_{s \in S} \frac{1}{s}.
Both are positive integers, so
1f(n+1)+1f(n(n+1))−1f(n) \frac{1}{f(n+1)} + \frac{1}{f(n(n+1))} - \frac{1}{f(n)}
is an integer. Since −12≤−1f(n)<1f(n+1)+1f(n(n+1))−1f(n)<1f(n+1)+1f(n(n+1))≤12+12=1-\frac{1}{2} \le -\frac{1}{f(n)} < \frac{1}{f(n+1)} + \frac{1}{f(n(n+1))} - \frac{1}{f(n)} < \frac{1}{f(n+1)} + \frac{1}{f(n(n+1))} \le \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{2} = 1, it follows that 1f(n)=1f(n+1)+1f(n(n+1))\frac{1}{f(n)} = \frac{1}{f(n+1)} + \frac{1}{f(n(n+1))}. In particular, ff is strictly increasing, so f(n)≥nf(n) \ge n.

Finally, proceed by induction on n≥2n \ge 2 to prove that f(n)=nf(n) = n. To show that f(2)=2f(2) = 2, simply notice that 2/f(2)=1/f(2)+1/f(3)+1/f(6)2/f(2) = 1/f(2) + 1/f(3) + 1/f(6) is a positive integer not exceeding 1. To complete the proof, let f(n)=nf(n) = n for some n≥2n \ge 2 and write
1n=1f(n)=1f(n+1)+1f(n(n+1))≤1n+1+1n(n+1)=1n \frac{1}{n} = \frac{1}{f(n)} = \frac{1}{f(n+1)} + \frac{1}{f(n(n+1))} \le \frac{1}{n+1} + \frac{1}{n(n+1)} = \frac{1}{n}
to conclude that f(n+1)=n+1f(n+1) = n+1.

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