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Combinatorics Difficulty 8.6 Shortlist Prove it Germany

Problem:

Let nn be a positive natural number. In the following we consider pairs of elements of the set {1,2,,n}\{1,2, \ldots, n\}, each of which has no common element.
Determine with proof the largest possible number of such pairs for which the sums of their elements are pairwise distinct and not greater than nn.
(For example, (1;9),(2;7)(1 ; 9),(2 ; 7) and (3;5)(3 ; 5) are three possible pairs for n=10n=10.)

Solution

Solution:

Let kk be the number of possible pairs. Then the sum SS of the 2k2 k numbers occurring in them can be estimated in two directions:

S1+2++2k=k(2k+1)S \geq 1+2+\ldots+2 k = k(2 k+1) (all numbers are distinct) and

Sn+(n1)++(nk+1)=nk12k(k1)S \leq n+(n-1)+\ldots+(n-k+1) = n k - \frac{1}{2} k(k-1) (all sums are distinct and n\leq n).

For n3n \geq 3, since k>0k>0, this yields, after dividing by kk, the inequality 2k+1n12(k1)2 k+1 \leq n - \frac{1}{2}(k-1), from which k2n15k \leq \frac{2 n-1}{5} follows. Hence there are at most 2n15\left\lfloor\frac{2 n-1}{5}\right\rfloor possible pairs
(x\lfloor x\rfloor denotes the largest integer x\leq x). For n<3n<3 it is obvious that k=0k=0.

Now, for n3n \geq 3, we give a construction with exactly 2n15\left\lfloor\frac{2 n-1}{5}\right\rfloor pairs. For this, let first n=5m+3n=5 m+3, so k=2m+1k=2 m+1. The following table shows the pairs and their sums, where for small mm some columns must be struck out because of ambiguity of the terms:

Pair3m+13 m+13m3 m\ldots2m+22 m+24m+24 m+24m+14 m+1\ldots3m+33 m+33m+23 m+2
24\ldots2m2 m13\ldots2m12 m-12m+12 m+1
Sum3m+33 m+33m+43 m+4\ldots4m+24 m+24m+34 m+34m+44 m+4\ldots5m+25 m+25m+35 m+3

The 2m+12 m+1 pairs contain all numbers from 11 to 4m+24 m+2; their sums range from 3m+33 m+3 to 5m+35 m+3 and are evidently distinct and not greater than nn.

The same construction also works for n=5m+4n=5 m+4 and n=5m+5n=5 m+5 (m0)(m \geq 0), because here again k=2m+1k=2 m+1. For n=5m+2n=5 m+2, k=2mk=2 m suffices. Therefore, in this case the last column of the table can simply be omitted. For n=5m+1n=5 m+1, likewise k=2mk=2 m, and we again omit the last column of the table and, in addition, decrease every upper number in the first row by 11. In this way all conditions are again satisfied.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from de; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.