Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it Switzerland

Problem:
Let N\mathbb{N} be the set of positive integers. Let f:NNf: \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{N} be a function such that for every nNn \in \mathbb{N}
f(n)n<2021 and f(f(f(ff(n)(n))))=n f(n)-n<2021 \text{ and } \underbrace{f(f(\cdots f(f}_{f(n)}(n)) \cdots))=n
Prove that f(n)=nf(n)=n for infinitely many nNn \in \mathbb{N}.

Solution

Solution:
We first prove that ff is surjective. This follows directly from the second condition since for all aNa \in \mathbb{N} we have
b=f(f(f(ff(a)1(a))))f(b)=a b=\underbrace{f(f(\cdots f(f}_{f(a)-1}(a)) \cdots)) \Longrightarrow f(b)=a
Now pick any prime p>2021p>2021 and nn with f(n)=pf(n)=p. Now apply ff to the second condition to get
p=f(n)=f(f(f(fp+1(n))))=f(f(f(fp(p)))) p=f(n)=\underbrace{f(f(\cdots f(f}_{p+1}(n)) \cdots))=\underbrace{f(f(\cdots f(f}_{p}(p)) \cdots))
Instead setting n=pn=p in the second condition we find that
p=f(f(f(ff(p)(p)))) p=\underbrace{f(f(\cdots f(f}_{f(p)}(p)) \cdots))
as well. Now let dpd_{p} be the smallest positive integer such that p=f(f(f(fdp(p))))p=\underbrace{f(f(\cdots f(f}_{d_{p}}(p)) \cdots)).
It follows that dpp,f(p)d_{p} \mid p, f(p) since otherwise we would obtain a smaller value of dpd_{p} by repeatedly substituting this expression in the two equations above. Now if dp=1d_{p}=1 we have f(p)=pf(p)=p and if dp=pd_{p}=p we have f(p)p<2021<pf(p)-p<2021<p using the first condition and we find f(p)=pf(p)=p as well. We conclude that every prime p>2021p>2021 satisfies f(p)=pf(p)=p and since there is an infinite number of such primes, this solves the problem.

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