Let α and β be positive real numbers. Emerald makes a trip in the coordinate plane, starting off from the origin (0,0). Each minute she moves one unit up or one unit to the right, restricting herself to the region ∣x−y∣<2025, in the coordinate plane. By the time she visits a point ( x,y ) she writes down the integer ⌊xα+yβ⌋ on it. It turns out that Emerald wrote each non-negative integer exactly once. Find all the possible pairs (α,β) for which such a trip would be possible.
Solution
Let (xn,yn) be the point that Emerald visits after n minutes. Then (xn+1,yn+1)∈{(xn+1,yn),(xn,yn+1)}. Either way, xn+1+yn+1=xn+yn+1, and since x0+y0=0+0=0, xn+yn=n.
The n-th number would be then zn=⌊xnα+(n−xn)β⌋⟹nβ+xn(α−β)−1<zn<nβ+xn(α−β) in which −2025<xn−yn<2025⟺2n−2025<xn<2n+2025. Suppose without loss of generality that α≥β. Then nβ+2n−2025(α−β)−1<zn<nβ+2n+2025(α−β), which reduces to zn−2α+βn<22025(α−β)+1. On the other hand, zn+1=⌊xn+1α+yn+1β⌋∈{⌊xnα+ynβ+α⌋,⌊xnα+ynβ+β⌋}, which implies zn+1≥zn. Since every non-negative integer appears exactly once, in increasing order, it follows that zn=n.
Therefore, for all positive integers n, n−2α+βn<22025(α−β)+1, which can only be possible if α+β=2; otherwise, the left hand side would be unbounded. If α+β=2, consider xn=⌈2n⌉ and yn=⌊2n⌋. If n is even, zn=⌊2nα+2nβ⌋=n; if n is odd, zn=⌊2n+1α+2n−1β⌋=n+⌊2α−β⌋, which equals n because 0<β≤α<α+β=2⟹0≤α−β<2.
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