Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /29 of 69

Number theory Difficulty 5.9 AIME, harder Prove it Mongolia

Let n,m3n, m \ge 3 be odd numbers. A sequence of mn1mn-1 integers is written on a circle in such a way that the sum of any mm consecutive integers is a power of mm. Show that the sequence contains a term which is repeated at least m+1m+1 times.
(Bayarmagnai Gombodorj)

Solution

Assume that a0,a1,,ak1a_0, a_1, \dots, a_{k-1} is a sequence of integers satisfying the given condition, where we take indices modulo kk. If each term of the sequence is divisible by mm then the sequence a0/m,a1/m,ak1/ma_0/m, a_1/m, \dots a_{k-1}/m satisfies the given condition. Hence we can assume that a0a_0 is not divisible by mm.

We claim that the sequence contains at least mm consecutive 11 if (k,m)=1(k, m) = 1. Let Si=ai++ai+m1S_i = a_i + \dots + a_{i+m-1} (0ik1)(0 \le i \le k-1) and let tt be an index such that StS_t is the smallest power of mm. Clearly, SiS_i is divisible by StS_t for each index ii and therefore ai+mai=Si+1Si0(modSt)a_{i+m} - a_i = S_{i+1} - S_i \equiv 0 \pmod{S_t}. Fix integers x,yx, y such that xk+ym=1xk + ym = 1. Then ai+1ai+xk+ymai(modSt)a_{i+1} \equiv a_{i+xk+ym} \equiv a_i \pmod{S_t} which implies that a0a1ak1(modSt)a_0 \equiv a_1 \equiv \dots \equiv a_{k-1} \pmod{S_t}. Since ma0mat=St0(modSt)ma_0 \equiv ma_t = S_t \equiv 0 \pmod{S_t} and ma0m \nmid a_0 we get St=mS_t = m and so at=at+1==at+m1=1a_t = a_{t+1} = \dots = a_{t+m-1} = 1. The claim is proved.

Now assume that we have a sequence of mn1mn-1 integers satisfying the given condition and a0a_0 is not divisible by mm. The sequence contains mm consecutive 11 by the claim. Delete one of them and then the remaining sequence of mn2mn-2 integers satisfies the given condition. We have (mn2,k)=1(mn-2, k) = 1 since n,mn, m are odd. So the remaining sequence contains at least mm consecutive 11 by the claim, completing the solution.

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 and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.