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Algebra Difficulty 8.8 Shortlist Prove it United States

Fix a function f:NNf: \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N} and for any m,nNm, n \in \mathbb{N} define
Δ(m,n)=f(f(f(m)))f(n) timesf(f(f(n)))f(m) times. \Delta(m, n) = \underbrace{f(f(\dots f(m)\dots))}_{f(n) \text{ times}} - \underbrace{f(f(\dots f(n)\dots))}_{f(m) \text{ times}}.
Suppose Δ(m,n)0\Delta(m, n) \neq 0 for any distinct m,nNm, n \in \mathbb{N}. Show that Δ\Delta is unbounded, meaning that for any constant CC there exist m,nNm, n \in \mathbb{N} with Δ(m,n)>C|\Delta(m, n)| > C.

Solution

Suppose for the sake of contradiction that Δ(m,n)N|\Delta(m, n)| \le N for all m,nm, n. Note that ff is injective, as
f(m)=f(n)    Δ(m,n)=0    m=n, f(m) = f(n) \implies \Delta(m, n) = 0 \implies m = n,
as desired.

Let GG be the “arrow graph” of ff, which is the directed graph with vertex set N\mathbb{N} and edges nf(n)n \to f(n). The first step in the solution is to classify the structure of GG. Injectivity implies that GG is a disjoint collection of chains (infinite and half-infinite) and cycles. We have the following sequence of claims that further refine the structure.

Claim — The graph GG has no cycles.
Proof. Suppose for the sake of contradiction that fk(n)=nf^k(n) = n for some k2k \ge 2 and nNn \in \mathbb{N}. As mm varies over N\mathbb{N}, we have Δ(m,n)N|\Delta(m, n)| \le N, so ff(n)(m)f^{f(n)}(m) can only take on some finite set of values. In particular, this means that
ff(n)(m1)=ff(n)(m2) f^{f(n)}(m_1) = f^{f(n)}(m_2)
for some m1m2m_1 \ne m_2, which contradicts injectivity.

Claim — The graph GG has at most 2N+12N + 1 chains.
Proof. Suppose we have numbers m1,,mkm_1, \dots, m_k in distinct chains. Select a positive integer B>max{f(m1),,f(mk)}B > \max\{f(m_1), \dots, f(m_k)\}. Now,
Δ(mi,fBf(mi)(1))N    fB(1)ffBf(mi)+1(mi)N. |\Delta(m_i, f^{B-f(m_i)}(1))| \le N \implies |f^B(1) - f^{f^{B-f(m_i)+1}}(m_i)| \le N.
Since the mim_is are in different chains, we have that ffBf(mi)+1(mi)f^{f^{B-f(m_i)+1}}(m_i) are distinct for each ii, which implies that k2N+1k \le 2N + 1, as desired.

Claim — The graph GG consists of exactly one half-infinite chain.
Proof. Fix some cNc \in \mathbb{N}. Call an element of N\mathbb{N} bad if it is not of the form fk(c)f^k(c) for some k0k \ge 0. It suffices to show that there are only finitely many bad numbers.
Since there are only finitely many chains, ff(c)(n)f^{f(c)}(n) achieves all sufficiently large positive integers, say all positive integers at least MM. Fix AA and BB such that B>AMB > A \ge M.

If ff(c)(n)[A,B]f^{f(c)}(n) \in [A, B], then ff(n)(c)[AN,B+N]f^{f(n)}(c) \in [A - N, B + N], and distinct nn generate distinct ff(n)(c)f^{f(n)}(c) due to the structure of GG. Therefore, we have at least BA+1B - A + 1 good numbers in [AN,B+N][A - N, B + N], so there are at most 2N2N bad numbers in [AN,B+N][A - N, B + N].
Varying BB, this shows there are at most 2N2N bad numbers at least ANA - N.
Let cc be the starting point of the chain, so every integer is of the form fk(c)f^k(c), where k0k \ge 0. Define a function g:Z0Ng: \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0} \to \mathbb{N} by
g(k):=fk(c). g(k) := f^k(c).
Due to the structure of GG, gg is a bijection. Define
δ(a,b):=Δ(fa(c),fb(c))=g(g(b+1)+a)g(g(a+1)+b), \delta(a, b) := \Delta(f^a(c), f^b(c)) = g(g(b+1)+a) - g(g(a+1)+b),
so the conditions are equivalent to δ(a,b)N|\delta(a, b)| \le N for all a,bZ0a, b \in \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0} and δ(a,b)0\delta(a, b) \ne 0 for aba \ne b, which is equivalent to g(a+1)ag(b+1)bg(a+1) - a \ne g(b+1) - b for aba \ne b. This tells us that g(x)xg(x) - x is injective for x1x \ge 1.

Lemma
For all MM, there exists a nonnegative integer xx with g(x)xMg(x) \le x - M.
Proof. Assume for the sake of contradiction that g(x)xg(x) - x is bounded below. Fix some large positive KK. Since g(x)xg(x) - x is injective, there exists BB such that g(x)xKg(x) - x \ge K for all xBx \ge B. Then min{g(B+1),g(B+2),}B+K\min\{g(B+1), g(B+2), \dots\} \ge B + K, while {g(0),,g(B)}\{g(0), \dots, g(B)\} only achieve B+1B+1 values. Thus, at least K1K-1 values are not achieved by gg, which is a contradiction.
Now pick BB such that g(B)+NBg(B) + N \le B and g(B)>Ng(B) > N. Note that infinitely many such BB exist, since we can take MM to be arbitrarily small in the above lemma. Let
t=max{g1(g(B)N),g1(g(B)N+1),,g1(g(B)+N)}. t = \max\{g^{-1}(g(B) - N), g^{-1}(g(B) - N + 1), \dots, g^{-1}(g(B) + N)\}.
Note that g(t)g(B)+NBg(t) \le g(B) + N \le B, so we have
δ(t1,Bg(t))=g(B)g(t1+g(B+1g(t)))N, |\delta(t-1, B - g(t))| = |g(B) - g(t-1 + g(B+1 - g(t)))| \le N,
so
t1+g(B+1g(t)){g1(g(B)N),g1(g(B)N+1),,g1(g(B)+N)}, t - 1 + g(B + 1 - g(t)) \in \{g^{-1}(g(B) - N), g^{-1}(g(B) - N + 1), \dots, g^{-1}(g(B) + N)\},
so by the maximality of tt, we must have g(B+1g(t))=1g(B + 1 - g(t)) = 1, so B+1g(t)=g1(1)B + 1 - g(t) = g^{-1}(1). We have g(t)g(B)N|g(t) - g(B)| \le N, so
(Bg(B))+1g1(1)N. |(B - g(B)) + 1 - g^{-1}(1)| \le N.
This is true for infinitely many values of BB, so infinitely many values of Bg(B)B - g(B) (by injectivity of g(x)xg(x) - x), which is a contradiction. This completes the proof.

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