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Iranian Mathematical Olympiad

Combinatorics Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Iran

Is it possible to write (n2)\binom{n}{2} consecutive natural numbers on the edges of a complete graph with nn vertices such that for every path (or cycle) of length 33 with edges a,b,ca, b, c (bb lies between a,ca, c) the greatest common divisor of the numbers of edges aa and cc divides the number of edge bb?

Solution

First we claim that for every positive integer kk, the edges which their numbers are divisible by kk form a cluster. Indeed, suppose on the contrary that SS is the largest cluster such that the number of its edges is divisible by kk and v∉Sv \notin S is another such edge. Applying problem statement on edge vv and edges of cluster we get there exists a larger cluster with number on edges divisible by kk.

Now suppose that p∣(n2)p \mid \binom{n}{2} where pp is a prime number. Therefore the edges with numbers divisible by 1p(n2)\frac{1}{p}\binom{n}{2} form a cluster and the number of such edges is pp. So

p=(t2)⇒2p=t(t−1)⇒{p∣t⇒t−1∣2⇒t=2 or t=3⇒t=3,p=3p∣t−1⇒t∣2⇒t=1 or t=2⇒Contradiction! \begin{aligned} p &= \begin{pmatrix} t \\ 2 \end{pmatrix} \Rightarrow 2p = t(t-1) \\ &\Rightarrow \begin{cases} p \mid t \Rightarrow t-1 \mid 2 \Rightarrow t=2 \text{ or } t=3 \Rightarrow t=3, p=3 \\ p \mid t-1 \Rightarrow t \mid 2 \Rightarrow t=1 \text{ or } t=2 \Rightarrow \text{Contradiction!} \end{cases} \end{aligned}

Thereby the only prime divisor of (n2)\begin{pmatrix} n \\ 2 \end{pmatrix} is three, so (n2)=3a\begin{pmatrix} n \\ 2 \end{pmatrix} = 3^a where a∈Na \in \mathbb{N}. If a=1a = 1 and so n=3n = 3 and numbers 1,2,31,2,3 satisfies problem statement. If a>1a > 1 there exist 99 multiple of 19(n2)\frac{1}{9}\begin{pmatrix} n \\ 2 \end{pmatrix} among numbers, but 99 cannot be written in the form (t2)\begin{pmatrix} t \\ 2 \end{pmatrix} so for n>3n > 3 such numbers do not exist. □\square

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