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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad Prove it Ukraine

In a country, the government has decided to build a transport link between cities by railway or airline in such a way that no more than four other cities can be reached directly from each city. Prove that the government can always choose the type of connection of the corresponding pairs of cities in such a way that there are no three cities, each pair of which is connected by one type of transport.
(Arseniy Nicolaev)

Figure 1
Fig. 42

Figure 2
Fig. 43

Solution

Let's rewrite the problem statement in terms of graphs: in the graph the degree of each vertex is not more than four. Prove that all edges can be painted in two colors so that there are no single-color triangles.
Let our graph have nn vertices. We prove the statement of the problem by induction on the number of vertices.

Base case: if n=1,2n=1, 2 everything is obvious
Assume the statement is true for any graph with nkn \le k vertices. Consider a graph with n=k+1n=k+1 vertices. Select the vertex AA arbitrarily. Remove this vertex from the graph as well as all edges from AA. Thus we have a graph with n=kn=k vertices, that, by the induction hypothesis, can be painted as needed. Now paint vertex AA with its edges. Consider three cases.

I. The degree of each vertex AA is not more than 2. Then paint all edges from AA in different colors, which proves the problem statement.

II. The degree vertex AA is equal to 3, that is there is exactly 3 edges AX,AYAX, AY and AZAZ (Fig. 42); the dotted line means it is not significant whether there is a corresponding edge. We know that the edges of ΔXYZ\Delta XYZ have different colors. Let, for instance, XYXY be painted in the first color YZYZ – the second color. Let's paint the edges as shown on Fig. 42: AXAX and AYAY – in the second color, and AZAZ – first. By the induction hypothesis the statement is proved.

Figure 1
Fig. 42

III. The degree vertex AA is equal to 4, that is there are the following edges from AA: AP,AQ,ARAP, AQ, AR and ASAS.

a) If the graph on the vertices P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S is complete, we have a separate connected component on the vertices A,P,Q,R,SA, P, Q, R, S. Wherein by the induction hypothesis it is a complete graph. Then let's paint its edges as shown on Fig. 43 and the statement is proved. Since all other vertices form a graph with less then kk vertices, by the induction hypothesis, it is painted as needed.

Figure 2
Fig. 43

b) If the graph on the vertices P,Q,R,SP, Q, R, S is not complete, suppose there that there is no edge QRQR. Let's paint the edges AP,AQAP, AQ in a color, opposite to the edge PQPQ, and the edges AR,ASAR, AS – in a color, opposite to the edge RSRS. It is straightforward to check that there are no single-color triangles. Hence, by the induction, the problem statement is proved.

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