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Algebra Difficulty 8.5 Shortlist Prove it United States

Choose positive integers b1,b2,b_1, b_2, \dots satisfying
1=b112>b222>b332>b442> 1 = \frac{b_1}{1^2} > \frac{b_2}{2^2} > \frac{b_3}{3^2} > \frac{b_4}{4^2} > \dots
and let rr denote the largest real number satisfying bnn2r\frac{b_n}{n^2} \ge r for all positive integers nn. What are the possible values of rr across all possible choices of the sequence (bn)(b_n)?

Solution

The answer is 0r1/20 \le r \le 1/2. Obviously r0r \ge 0. In one direction, we show that
Claim (Greedy bound) — For all integers nn, we have
bnn212+12n. \frac{b_n}{n^2} \le \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{2n}.
Proof. This is by induction on nn. For n=1n=1 it is given. For the inductive step we have
bn<n2bn1(n1)2n2(12+12(n1))=n32(n1)=12[n2+n+1+1n1]=n(n+1)2+12[1+1n1]n(n+1)2+1 \begin{align*} b_n &< n^2 \frac{b_{n-1}}{(n-1)^2} \\ &\le n^2 \left( \frac{1}{2} + \frac{1}{2(n-1)} \right) = \frac{n^3}{2(n-1)} \\ &= \frac{1}{2} \left[ n^2 + n + 1 + \frac{1}{n-1} \right] \\ &= \frac{n(n+1)}{2} + \frac{1}{2} \left[ 1 + \frac{1}{n-1} \right] \\ &\le \frac{n(n+1)}{2} + 1 \end{align*}
So bn<n(n+1)2+1b_n < \frac{n(n+1)}{2} + 1 and since bnb_n is an integer, bnn(n+1)2b_n \le \frac{n(n+1)}{2}. This implies the result. \square

We now give a construction. For r=1/2r = 1/2 we take bn=12n(n+1)b_n = \frac{1}{2}n(n+1); for r=0r = 0 we take bn=1b_n = 1.

Claim (Explicit construction, given by Nikolai Beluhov) — Fix 0<r<1/20 < r < 1/2. Let NN be large enough that rn2+n<12n(n+1)\lceil rn^2 + n \rceil < \frac{1}{2}n(n+1) for all nNn \ge N. Then the following sequence works:
bn={rn2+nnNn2+n2n<N. b_n = \begin{cases} \lceil rn^2 + n \rceil & n \ge N \\ \frac{n^2+n}{2} & n < N. \end{cases}
Proof. We certainly have
bnn2=rn2+n+O(1)n2nr. \frac{b_n}{n^2} = \frac{rn^2 + n + O(1)}{n^2} \xrightarrow{n \to \infty} r.
Mainly, we contend bnn2b_n n^{-2} is strictly decreasing. We need only check this for nNn \ge N; in fact
bnn2rn2+nn2>[r(n+1)2+(n+1)]+1(n+1)2>bn+1(n+1)2 \frac{b_n}{n^2} \ge \frac{rn^2 + n}{n^2} > \frac{[r(n+1)^2 + (n+1)] + 1}{(n+1)^2} > \frac{b_{n+1}}{(n+1)^2}
where the middle inequality is true since it rearranges to 1n>n+2(n+1)2\frac{1}{n} > \frac{n+2}{(n+1)^2}. \square

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