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Algebra Difficulty 6.5 National Olympiad Prove it Vietnam

Let FF be the set of all functions f:Z{0}Nf: \mathbb{Z} \setminus \{0\} \to \mathbb{N}^* with the following property: If a,bZ{0}a, b \in \mathbb{Z} \setminus \{0\} and aa is not divisible by bb then there exist integers r,sr, s such that a=br+sa = br + s and f(s)<f(b)f(s) < f(b).
Find all functions f0Ff_0 \in F such that fF,nZ{0}\forall f \in F, \forall n \in \mathbb{Z} \setminus \{0\}, we have f0(n)f(n)f_0(n) \le f(n).

Solution

We will prove that the required function f0f_0 is g(n)=log2n+1g(n) = \lceil \log_2 |n| \rceil + 1.

(1) We prove that if g(n)=log2n+1g(n) = \lceil \log_2 |n| \rceil + 1 then g(n)Fg(n) \in F.
Consider numbers a,bZ{0}a, b \in \mathbb{Z} \setminus \{0\} and aa is not divisible by bb. Assume that r,sr', s' are integers such that a=br+sa = br' + s' with 0<s<b0 < s' < |b|.
If s<b2s' < \frac{|b|}{2} then we choose r=r,s=sr = r', s = s'.
If sb2s' \ge \frac{|b|}{2} then we choose r=r±1,s=sbr = r' \pm 1, s = s' - |b|.
Therefore for all a,ba, b we always have a=br+sa = br + s with sb2|s| \le \frac{|b|}{2}. In this case g(s)g(b)1g(s) \le g(b) - 1.
It means that we have a=br+sa = br + s with g(b)>g(s)g(b) > g(s), which satisfies the required condition.

(2) Let f0(n)=minf(n)f_0(n) = \min f(n) for all nn; We prove that f0Ff_0 \in F.
For all a,ba, b there exists ff such that f0(b)=f(b)f_0(b) = f(b). We write aa in the form a=br+sa = br + s.
Since f(s)<f(b)f(s) < f(b) we have f0(s)f(s)<f(b)=f0(b)f_0(s) \le f(s) < f(b) = f_0(b), therefore f0Ff_0 \in F.

(3) We will prove that f0(n)=g(n)f_0(n) = g(n).
For n=±1n = \pm 1, we have g(n)f0(n)1=g(1)g(n)=f0(n)g(n) \ge f_0(n) \ge 1 = g(1) \Rightarrow g(n) = f_0(n).
Assume that there exists nn for which f0(n)<g(n)f_0(n) < g(n). We choose such nn for which f0(n)f_0(n) is minimum and f0(n)<g(n)f_0(n) < g(n). It is clear that n±1n \ne \pm 1.
Assume that r,sr, s are integers such that f0(s)<f0(n)f_0(s) < f_0(n) and a=br+sa = br + s. Since f0(s)<f0(n)f_0(s) < f_0(n) then f0(s)=g(s)f_0(s) = g(s) for all ss with s>n2|s| > \lfloor \frac{|n|}{2} \rfloor, g(s)g(n)1g(s) \ge g(n) - 1, therefore g(n)>f0(n)>g(n)1g(n) > f_0(n) > g(n) - 1, which is absurd.
So, the required function f0f_0 is f0(n)=log2n+1f_0(n) = \lceil \log_2 |n| \rceil + 1.

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