We say a function is great if for any nonnegative integers and ,
If and are two sequences of integers, we write if there exists a great function satisfying and for every nonnegative integer (in particular, ).
Prove that if , and are four sequences of integers satisfying , and , then .
Solution
First solution (Nikolai Beluhov) Let . We let be great functions for and write the following infinite array:
The greatness condition is then equivalent to saying that any sub-grid has determinant (the sign is in two quadrants and in the other two), and we wish to fill in the lower-right quadrant. To this end, it suffices to prove the following.
Lemma
Suppose we have a sub-grid
satisfying the determinant conditions. Then we can fill in the ninth entry in the lower right with an integer while retaining greatness.
Proof. We consider only the case where the is completely contained inside the bottom-right quadrant, since the other cases are exactly the same (or even by flipping the signs of the top row or left column appropriately).
If we have , hence , and we can fill in the entry arbitrarily.
Otherwise, we have . This is enough to imply , and so we can fill in the integer .
Second solution (Ankan Bhattacharya) We will give an explicit classification of great sequences:
Lemma
The pair is great if and only if , , and and for all .
Proof of necessity. It is clear that . Then , i.e. . Now, focus on six entries with and . Let , , and , so
Then
and from above , so ; similarly for . (If , we have and , so this is OK.)
Proof of sufficiency. Now consider two sequences and satisfying our criteria. We build a great function by induction on . More strongly, we will assume as part of the inductive hypothesis that any two adjacent entries of are relatively prime and that for any three consecutive entries horizontally or vertically, the middle one divides the sum of the other two.
First we set so that , which is possible.
Consider an uninitialized ; without loss of generality suppose . Then we know five values of and wish to set a sixth one , as in the matrix below:
(We imagine -indices to increase southwards and -indices to increase eastwards.) If , then the choice works as . If , it easily follows that and as . Then we set the uninitialized entry to anything.
Now we verify that this is compatible with the inductive hypothesis. From the determinant condition, it easily follows that . The proof that is almost identical to a step performed in the “necessary” part of the lemma and we do not repeat it here. By induction, a desired great function exists.
We complete the solution. Let , and be integer sequences for which , , and are great. Then , and each term in each sequence (after the zeroth term) divides the sum of its neighbors. Since divides all three of , , and , it follows divides , and thus is great as desired.