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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Austria

Determine all natural numbers n2n \ge 2 with the property that there are two permutations (a1,a2,,an)(a_1, a_2, \dots, a_n) and (b1,b2,,bn)(b_1, b_2, \dots, b_n) of the numbers 1,2,,n1, 2, \dots, n such that (a1+b1,a2+b2,,an+bn)(a_1 + b_1, a_2 + b_2, \dots, a_n + b_n) are consecutive natural numbers.

Solution

The permutations exist if and only if nn is odd.

We have
(a1+b1)+(a2+b2)++(an+bn)=2(1+2++n)=n(n+1). (a_1 + b_1) + (a_2 + b_2) + \dots + (a_n + b_n) = 2(1 + 2 + \dots + n) = n(n+1).
On the other hand, there is a natural number NN such that
a1+b1=N, a2+b2=N+1, , an+bn=N+n1 a_1 + b_1 = N,\ a_2 + b_2 = N + 1,\ \dots,\ a_n + b_n = N + n - 1
and therefore
(a1+b1)+(a2+b2)++(an+bn)=nN+(1++(n1))=nN+n(n1)2. (a_1 + b_1) + (a_2 + b_2) + \dots + (a_n + b_n) = nN + (1 + \dots + (n-1)) = nN + \frac{n(n-1)}{2}.
We obtain the equation n(n+1)=nN+n(n1)/2n(n+1) = nN + n(n-1)/2 which becomes N=n+1n12=n+32N = n+1 - \frac{n-1}{2} = \frac{n+3}{2}.
Therefore, the number NN is an integer if and only if nn is odd.

It remains to investigate if two permutations with the desired property exist for every odd number nn with n3n \ge 3. Let n=2k+1n = 2k + 1 with k1k \ge 1.
Experimenting with k=1k=1 and k=2k=2 can lead to the following pattern:
(1k+22k+332k+1k+1k+11k+22k+3k2k+1) \begin{pmatrix} 1 & k+2 & 2 & k+3 & 3 & \dots & 2k+1 & k+1 \\ k+1 & 1 & k+2 & 2 & k+3 & \dots & k & 2k+1 \end{pmatrix}
Summing the two rows gives the 2k+12k+1 consecutive numbers k+2,k+3,,3k+1,3k+2k+2, k+3, \dots, 3k+1, 3k+2 as desired.

(Walther Janous) \square

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