Maths Olympiad Prep

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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.0 AIME, harder Prove it Taiwan

A 3n×3n3n \times 3n chessboard has its rows and columns numbered in order from 1 to 3n3n. The square (x,y)(x, y) is colored A, B, or C according to whether x+yx + y modulo 3 has remainder 0, 1, or 2, respectively. A chip is placed on every square, and each chip has color A, B, or C. There are 3n23n^2 chips of each of the three colors.
Suppose we can arrange a rearrangement of the chips satisfying the following: each chip moves a distance of at most dd, chips of color A replace chips of color B, chips of color B replace chips of color C, and chips of color C replace chips of color A. Prove that there is another rearrangement of the chips such that each chip moves a distance of at most d+2d+2, and after the move every square contains a chip of the same color as that square.

Solution

Without loss of generality, it suffices to prove that all the color-A chips (abbreviated as A-chips) can be moved to distinct color-A squares (abbreviated as A-squares), such that each A-chip moves a distance of at most d+2d+2 from its original square. That is to say, we can form a perfect matching between the 3n23n^2 A-chips and the 3n23n^2 A-squares such that the distance between each matched pair is at most d+2d+2.
In order to find this perfect matching, we construct a bipartite graph: all the A-squares form one group of vertices, and all the A-chips form another group of vertices.
Divide the original chessboard into 3×13 \times 1 trominoes; each tromino contains exactly one A-square. Find a permutation π\pi that sends A-chips to B-chips, B-chips to C-chips, and C-chips to A-chips, such that every move has distance at most dd. For any A-square SS and any A-chip TT, if π(T)\pi(T) or π1(T)\pi^{-1}(T) lies in the tromino containing SS, then we connect SS and TT with an edge in the bipartite graph. It is easy to see that this graph may have multiple edges; a square and a chip may be connected by up to three edges. It is easy to see that every edge in the graph has length at most d+2d+2; here the length of an edge refers to the distance between the square and the chip it connects.
Every A-chip TT is connected to three A-squares: these are the A-squares belonging to the trominoes that contain TT, π(T)\pi(T), and π1(T)\pi^{-1}(T). Hence in this bipartite graph, every chip has degree 3. Next we prove that every square also has degree 3. Let SS be some A-square, and let T1,T2,T3T_1, T_2, T_3

be the chips on the tromino containing SS. For i=1,2,3i = 1, 2, 3, if TiT_i is an A-chip, then SS is connected to TiT_i; if TiT_i is a B-chip, then SS is connected to π1(Ti)\pi^{-1}(T_i); and finally if TiT_i is a C-chip, then SS is connected to π(Ti)\pi(T_i). This proves that every A-square also has degree 3.
Since every A-square has degree 3, from any set SS of A-squares there emanate 3S3|S| edges. These edges reach at least S|S| chips, because every A-chip also has degree 3. Therefore, any set SS of A-squares has at least S|S| A-chips as its neighbors.
Thus, by Hall's marriage theorem, there exists a perfect matching between the two groups of vertices in this bipartite graph. Hence there exists a perfect matching between the A-squares and the A-chips in which every edge has distance at most d+2d+2; therefore the rearrangement required by the original problem exists, which completes the proof.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.