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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.9 National olympiad Prove it Austria

We consider permutations ff on the set NN of non-negative integers, i.e. bijective mappings ff from NN to NN, with the following properties:
For all nNn \in N, we have f(f(x))=xf(f(x)) = x and f(x)x3|f(x) - x| \le 3.
Furthermore, for all integers n>42n > 42, we have
M(n)=1n+1j=0nf(j)j<2.011 M(n) = \frac{1}{n+1} \sum_{j=0}^{n} |f(j) - j| < 2.011
Prove that there exist infinitely many integers KK, such that ff maps the set {n0nK}\{n|0 \le n \le K\} onto itself.

Solution

If an infinite number of such KK do not exist, there must exist some KoK_o, such that for all K>KoK > K_o there exists an nn with nK<f(n)n \le K < f(n). Since f(x)x3|f(x) - x| \le 3 must always hold, such an nn can only be KK, K1K-1 or K2K-2.

The same must hold for K=f(n)K = f(n), and so on. This means that, from some KoK_o on, the function must map “up” into each interval [n,f(n)][n, f(n)], and also “up” out of each such interval. In order for this to be possible, we must have f(n)n3f(n) - n \ge 3, and it therefore follows that f(n)n=3|f(n) - n| = 3 must hold for all n>K>Kon > K > K_o. If this is the case, we have
M(n)=1n+1j=0nf(j)j=1n+1(j=0Kf(j)j+3(nk))=3Cn+1 M(n) = \frac{1}{n+1} \sum_{j=0}^{n} |f(j) - j| = \frac{1}{n+1} \left( \sum_{j=0}^{K} |f(j) - j| + 3(n-k) \right) = 3 - \frac{C}{n+1}
with
C=3K+3j=0Kf(j)j=j=0K(3f(j)j)0. C = 3K + 3 - \sum_{j=0}^{K} |f(j) - j| = \sum_{j=0}^{K} (3 - |f(j) - j|) \ge 0.
It therefore follows that there exists a K1K_1 such that M(n)=3Cn+1>2.011M(n) = 3 - \frac{C}{n+1} > 2.011 for n>K1n > K_1, which contradicts the assumption M(n)<2.011M(n) < 2.011. This is not possible, and we see that an infinite number of KK with the required properties exist, as claimed.

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