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Algebra Difficulty 5.0 AIME Prove it Romania

Prove that a sequence (an)n1(a_n)_{n \ge 1} having the property:
an1mammn a_n - \frac{1}{m} \le a_m \le \frac{m}{n}
for all m,nN,mnm, n \in \mathbb{N}^*, m \ge n, is convergent.

Solution

For m=nNm = n \in \mathbb{N}^* we get an1a_n \le 1, implying that the sequence is upper bounded.

Denote by L=sup{annN}L = \sup\{a_n \mid n \in \mathbb{N}^*\}. We get L1L \le 1. If ε>0\varepsilon > 0 is arbitrary we find n0Nn_0 \in \mathbb{N}^* such that Lε<an0LL - \varepsilon < a_{n_0} \le L.

Consider m0=max{n0,1+1an0L+ε}m_0 = \max\{n_0, 1 + \lfloor \frac{1}{a_{n_0} - L + \varepsilon} \rfloor\}. For mm0m \ge m_0 we have
aman01man01m0>Lε, a_m \ge a_{n_0} - \frac{1}{m} \ge a_{n_0} - \frac{1}{m_0} > L - \varepsilon,
That is amL<ε|a_m - L| < \varepsilon for all mm0m \ge m_0 proving that the sequence has LL as limit.

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