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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Find all periodic sequences a1a2,a_1 a_2, \dots of real numbers such that the following conditions hold for all n1n \ge 1:
an+2+an2=an+an+12andan+1an1. a_{n+2} + a_n^2 = a_n + a_{n+1}^2 \quad \text{and} \quad |a_{n+1} - a_n| \le 1.

Solution

Answer: The sequences satisfying the conditions of the problem are:
c,c,c,c,d,d,d,d, c, -c, c, -c, \dots \\ d, d, d, d, \dots
where c[12,12]c \in \left[-\frac{1}{2}, \frac{1}{2}\right] and dd is any real number.

We rewrite the first condition as
an+2+an+1=(an+1+an)(an+1an+1) a_{n+2} + a_{n+1} = (a_{n+1} + a_n)(a_{n+1} - a_n + 1)
If there exists a positive integer mm such that am+1+am=0a_{m+1} + a_m = 0, then from equation (1) we have an+1+an=0a_{n+1} + a_n = 0 for all positive integers nmn \ge m. By the fact that the sequence (ai+1+ai)(a_{i+1} + a_i) is periodic, we get ai+1+ai=0a_{i+1} + a_i = 0 for every positive integer ii. Thus the sequence (ai)(a_i) is of the form c,c,c,c,c, -c, c, -c, \dots for some c12|c| \le \frac{1}{2}.

Now suppose that an+1+an0a_{n+1} + a_n \ne 0 for every positive integer nn. Let TT be the period of the sequence. From equation (1) we have
1=i=1Tai+2+ai+1ai+1+ai=i=1T(ai+1ai+1) 1 = \prod_{i=1}^{T} \frac{a_{i+2} + a_{i+1}}{a_{i+1} + a_i} = \prod_{i=1}^{T} (a_{i+1} - a_i + 1)
Combining with the second condition ai+1ai1|a_{i+1} - a_i| \le 1, we have ai+1ai+1>0a_{i+1} - a_i + 1 > 0. Using the AM-GM inequality we get
1=i=1T(ai+1ai+1)(i=1T(ai+1ai+1)T)T=1. 1 = \prod_{i=1}^{T} (a_{i+1} - a_i + 1) \le \left( \frac{\sum_{i=1}^{T} (a_{i+1} - a_i + 1)}{T} \right)^T = 1.
So the equality holds, and thus we get
a2a1=a3a2==aT+1aT a_2 - a_1 = a_3 - a_2 = \dots = a_{T+1} - a_T
which means that (ai)(a_i) is a constant sequence. So all sequences satisfying the conditions of the problem are those listed above. \square

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