Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2013

Combinatorics Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Saudi Arabia

Let F0=0F_{0}=0, F1=1F_{1}=1 and Fn+1=Fn+Fn1F_{n+1}=F_{n}+F_{n-1}, for all positive integer nn, be the Fibonacci sequence. Prove that for any positive integer mm there exist infinitely many positive integers nn such that
Fn+2Fn+1+1Fn+2modm F_{n}+2 \equiv F_{n+1}+1 \equiv F_{n+2} \quad \bmod m

Solution

Let mm be a positive integer and consider the infinite set of pairs (Fk,Fk+1)(F_{k}, F_{k+1}), for kNk \in \mathbb{N}. By the pigeonhole principle, there exists a pair (a,b)(a, b) of integers 0a,bm10 \leq a, b \leq m-1 and an infinite sequence of integers 0<k1<k2<0<k_{1}<k_{2}<\cdots such that
(Fki,Fki+1)(a,b)modm, for all i1. (F_{k_{i}}, F_{k_{i}+1}) \equiv (a, b) \quad \bmod m, \text{ for all } i \geq 1.
Therefore
(Fki1,Fki)=(Fki+1Fki,Fki)(ba,a)modm, for all i1. (F_{k_{i}-1}, F_{k_{i}}) = (F_{k_{i}+1}-F_{k_{i}}, F_{k_{i}}) \equiv (b-a, a) \bmod m, \text{ for all } i \geq 1.
We keep descending in this way until we get
(Fkik1+2,Fkik1+3)(F2,F3)(1,2)modm, for all i1. (F_{k_{i}-k_{1}+2}, F_{k_{i}-k_{1}+3}) \equiv (F_{2}, F_{3}) \equiv (1,2) \quad \bmod m, \quad \text{ for all } i \geq 1.
Let ni=kik1+2n_{i}=k_{i}-k_{1}+2, for all i1i \geq 1. Clearly, the infinite sequence 2=n1<n2<2=n_{1}< n_{2}<\cdots is increasing and we have
Fni+2F2+23modm,Fni+1+1F3+13modm and Fni+2Fni+1+FniF3+F23modm \begin{gathered} F_{n_{i}}+2 \equiv F_{2}+2 \equiv 3 \bmod m, \quad F_{n_{i}+1}+1 \equiv F_{3}+1 \equiv 3 \bmod m \\ \text{ and } F_{n_{i}+2} \equiv F_{n_{i}+1}+F_{n_{i}} \equiv F_{3}+F_{2} \equiv 3 \bmod m \end{gathered}

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