Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /289 of 377

Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
SS is a set of complex numbers such that if u,vSu, v \in S, then uvSu v \in S and u2+v2Su^{2}+v^{2} \in S. Suppose that the number NN of elements of SS with absolute value at most 11 is finite. What is the largest possible value of NN?

Solution

Solution:
First, if SS contained some u0u \neq 0 with absolute value <1<1, then (by the first condition) every power of uu would be in SS, and SS would contain infinitely many different numbers of absolute value <1<1. This is a contradiction.

Now suppose SS contains some number uu of absolute value 11 and argument θ\theta. If θ\theta is not an integer multiple of π/6\pi / 6, then uu has some power vv whose argument lies strictly between θ+π/3\theta+\pi / 3 and θ+π/2\theta+\pi / 2. Then u2+v2=u2(1+(v/u)2)u^{2}+v^{2}=u^{2}\left(1+(v / u)^{2}\right) has absolute value between 00 and 11, since (v/u)2(v / u)^{2} lies on the unit circle with angle strictly between 2π/32 \pi / 3 and π\pi. But u2+v2Su^{2}+v^{2} \in S, so this is a contradiction.

This shows that the only possible elements of SS with absolute value 1\leq 1 are 00 and the points on the unit circle whose arguments are multiples of π/6\pi / 6, giving N1+12=13N \leq 1+12=13.

To show that N=13N=13 is attainable, we need to show that there exists a possible set SS containing all these points. Let TT be the set of all numbers of the form a+bωa+b \omega, where a,ba, b are integers and ω\omega is a complex cube root of 11. Since ω2=1ω\omega^{2}=-1-\omega, TT is closed under multiplication and addition. Then, if we let SS be the set of numbers uu such that u2Tu^{2} \in T, SS has the required properties, and it contains the 1313 complex numbers specified, so we're in business.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.