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Combinatorics Difficulty 7.2 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let n1n \geq 1 be a fixed positive integer. We consider all the sets SS which consist of sub-sequences of the sequence 0,1,2,,n0,1,2, \ldots, n satisfying the following conditions:
i) If (ai)i=0k\left(a_{i}\right)_{i=0}^{k} belongs to SS, then a0=0,ak=na_{0}=0, a_{k}=n and ai+1ai2a_{i+1}-a_{i} \leq 2 for all 0ik10 \leq i \leq k-1.
ii) If (ai)i=0k\left(a_{i}\right)_{i=0}^{k} and (bj)j=0h\left(b_{j}\right)_{j=0}^{h} both belong to SS, then there exist 0i0k10 \leq i_{0} \leq k-1 and 0j0h10 \leq j_{0} \leq h-1 such that ai0=bj0a_{i_{0}}=b_{j_{0}} and ai0+1=bj0+1a_{i_{0}+1}=b_{j_{0}+1}.

Find the maximum value of S|S| (among all the above-mentioned sets SS ).

Solution

Firstly, denote by AnA_{n} the set of all sub-sequences (ai)i=0k\left(a_{i}\right)_{i=0}^{k} of (0,1,2,,n)(0,1,2, \ldots, n) such that:
- a0=0,a1=1,ak=na_{0}=0, a_{1}=1, a_{k}=n,
- ai+1ai2a_{i+1}-a_{i} \leq 2 for all 0ik10 \leq i \leq k-1.
Obviously, AnA_{n} is one of the sets SS satisfying Conditions i)-ii).
It is also clear that A1=A2=1|A_{1}|=|A_{2}|=1.
If n>2n>2, then for each (ai)i=0kAn\left(a_{i}\right)_{i=0}^{k} \in A_{n}, let us define F((ai)i=0k)=(ai)i=0k1F\left(\left(a_{i}\right)_{i=0}^{k}\right)=\left(a_{i}\right)_{i=0}^{k-1}. In so doing, we have clearly obtained a bijection F:AnAn1An2F: A_{n} \rightarrow A_{n-1} \cup A_{n-2}, hence,
An=An1+An2 |A_{n}|=|A_{n-1}|+|A_{n-2}|
when n>2n>2. So, An|A_{n}| is the nthn^{\text{th}} Fibonacci number, which is denoted by FnF_{n}. We will show that FnF_{n} is the maximum value of S|S|, among all the sets SS satisfying Conditions i)-ii). Indeed, for such a set SS, we need only prove that
SFn. |S| \leq F_{n} .
Let S1=SAnS_{1}=S \cap A_{n}. Then S=S1(S\S1)S=S_{1} \cup\left(S \backslash S_{1}\right). We define a mapping f:S\S1Anf: S \backslash S_{1} \rightarrow A_{n} by partitioning every wS\S1w \in S \backslash S_{1} into parts of the form ( m,m+2,m+3,,m+2k)m, m+2, m+3, \ldots, m+2k) or ( m,m+2,m+3,,m+2k+1m, m+2, m+3, \ldots, m+2k+1 ) in which k1k \geq 1 and then ff changes each part by the following rule:
(m,m+2,m+3,,m+2k)(m,m+1,m+2,m+4,m+6,,m+2k)(m, m+2, m+3, \ldots, m+2k) \mapsto (m, m+1, m+2, m+4, m+6, \ldots, m+2k)
and
(m,m+2,m+3,,m+2k+1)(m,m+1,m+3,m+5,,m+2k+1)(m, m+2, m+3, \ldots, m+2k+1) \mapsto (m, m+1, m+3, m+5, \ldots, m+2k+1).
We can see that:
- ff is one-to-one.
- The two sequences ww and f(w)f(w) do not satisfy Condition ii); so,
f(w)SwS\S1. f(w) \notin S \quad \forall w \in S \backslash S_{1} .
Hence, S1f(S\S1)=S_{1} \cap f\left(S \backslash S_{1}\right)=\emptyset. Since S1f(S\S1)AnS_{1} \cup f\left(S \backslash S_{1}\right) \subset A_{n}, it follows that
S=S1f(S\S1)An=Fn |S|=|S_{1} \cup f\left(S \backslash S_{1}\right)| \leq |A_{n}|=F_{n}

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