Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /27 of 41

, 2015

Algebra Difficulty 8.4 Shortlist Prove it Slovenia

Let f:ZZf: \mathbb{Z} \to \mathbb{Z} be an injective map such that f(m)f(n)2015|f(m) - f(n)| \le 2015 holds for arbitrary integers mm and nn which satisfy mn2015|m - n| \le 2015. Prove that
f(m)f(n)=mn |f(m) - f(n)| = |m - n|
holds for all m,nZm, n \in \mathbb{Z}.

Solution

Let nn be an arbitrary integer and
Sn={n2015,n2014,,n,,n+2015} S_n = \{n - 2015, n - 2014, \dots, n, \dots, n + 2015\}
be the set of all integers that differ from nn by at most 20152015.
We know that Sf(n)={f(n)2015,f(n)2014,,f(n)+2015}S_{f(n)} = \{f(n)-2015, f(n)-2014, \dots, f(n)+2015\}.
From the condition of the problem it follows that the numbers f(n2015),f(n2014),,f(n+2015)f(n-2015), f(n-2014), \dots, f(n+2015) are also elements of the set Sf(n)S_{f(n)}, since they differ from f(n)f(n) by at most 20152015. Because ff is injective all these numbers are different. There are 40314031 of them, which is also the size of the set Sf(n)S_{f(n)}. Thus
Sf(n)={f(n)2015,,f(n)+2015}={f(n2015),,f(n+2015)} S_{f(n)} = \{f(n) - 2015, \dots, f(n) + 2015\} = \{f(n - 2015), \dots, f(n + 2015)\}

Let us now look at the intersection of the sets Sf(n)S_{f(n)} and Sf(n+1)S_{f(n+1)}. On one hand we have
Sf(n)Sf(n+1)={f(n2015),,f(n+2015)}{f(n2014),,f(n+2016)}={f(n2014),,f(n+2015)}. \begin{aligned} S_{f(n)} \cap S_{f(n+1)} &= \{f(n - 2015), \dots, f(n + 2015)\} \cap \{f(n - 2014), \dots, f(n + 2016)\} \\ &= \{f(n - 2014), \dots, f(n + 2015)\}. \end{aligned}
So the intersection has 40304030 elements. On the other hand we have
Sf(n)Sf(n+1)={f(n)2015,,f(n)+2015}{f(n+1)2015,,f(n+1)+2015}. S_{f(n)} \cap S_{f(n+1)} = \{f(n) - 2015, \dots, f(n) + 2015\} \cap \{f(n+1) - 2015, \dots, f(n+1) + 2015\}.
This set can have 40304030 elements if and only if f(n)f(n) and f(n+1)f(n+1) differ by 11. Thus we proved that f(n+1)f(n)=1|f(n+1) - f(n)| = 1 for every integer nn.
If for some nn we have f(n+1)f(n)=1f(n+1) - f(n) = 1 then by induction we have f(n+k)f(n)=kf(n+k) - f(n) = k for every integer kk. Similarly, if for some nn we have f(n+1)f(n)=1f(n+1) - f(n) = -1 then we have f(n+k)f(n)=kf(n+k) - f(n) = -k for every integer kk. In both cases we get f(m)f(n)=mn|f(m) - f(n)| = |m-n| for all integers mm and nn.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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