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Combinatorics Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Taiwan

Fix an integer k2k \ge 2. Two players, Ana and Banana, play the following game of numbers: Initially, some integer nkn \ge k gets written on the blackboard. Then they take moves in turn, with Ana beginning. A player making a move erases the number mm just written on the blackboard and replaces it by some number mm' with km<mk \le m' < m that is coprime to mm. The first player who cannot move anymore loses.
An integer nkn \ge k is called good if Banana has a winning strategy when the initial number is nn, and bad otherwise.
Consider two integers n,nkn, n' \ge k with the property that each prime number pkp \le k divides nn if and only if it divides nn'. Prove that either both nn and nn' are good or both are bad.

Solution

For convenience, let nxn \to x denote the move of erasing nn and writing xx; by the rules, we must have n>xkn > x \ge k and (n,x)=1(n, x) = 1.

Claim A. If mm is a good number, and n>mn > m is coprime to mm, then nn is a bad number.
Proof. Because Ana only needs to choose nmn \to m, and then copy Banana's winning strategy starting from mm.

Claim B. Any two good numbers cannot be coprime.
Proof. This follows immediately from Claim A and B.

Claim 1. If nn is a good number and nnn|n', then nn' is a good number.
Proof. If nn' is a bad number, this means Ana can make the move nxn' \to x with xx being a good number. However, (n,x)=1(n,x)=1(n', x) = 1 \Rightarrow (n, x) = 1, but nn and xx are both good numbers, which contradicts Claim C.

Claim 2. If rsrs is a bad number, then r2sr^2s is also a bad number.
Proof. rsrs being a bad number means Ana can make the move rsxrs \to x with xx being a good number, but xx is clearly coprime to r2sr^2s, so from r2sxr^2s \to x we know r2sr^2s is a bad number.

Claim 3. If p>kp > k is a prime and nkn \ge k is a bad number, then npnp is also a bad number.
Proof. If not, then there exists a smallest bad number nn such that npnp is a good number. We derive a contradiction as follows.
1. Since nn is a bad number, Ana can make the move nxn \to x, where xx is a good number. It is easy to see that (np,x)>1(np, x) > 1, otherwise npnp would be a bad number, a contradiction. But we know (n,x)=1(n, x) = 1, so pxp|x. Let x=pryx = p^r y, where (p,y)=1(p, y) = 1.
2. Note that y=1y = 1 is impossible, because if y=1y = 1, then x=prx = p^r; and since (p,k)=1(p, k) = 1, Ana can make the move xkx \to k, so xx would be a bad number, a contradiction. Hence y>1y > 1, so there must exist a smallest positive integer α\alpha such that yαky^\alpha \ge k.
3. Based on the fact that npnp and yαy^\alpha are coprime and npnp is a good number, by Claim B, yαy^\alpha must be a bad number.
4. By the minimality of α\alpha, we have yα<ky<py=xpr1<npr1y^\alpha < ky < py = \frac{x}{p^{r-1}} < \frac{n}{p^{r-1}}, so pr1yα<np^{r-1}y^\alpha < n. Hence, by the minimality of nn, pr1yαp^{r-1}y^\alpha must be a good number (because x=p(pr1yα)x = p(p^{r-1}y^\alpha) is a good number). By the same argument, pr2yα,,yαp^{r-2}y^\alpha, \dots, y^\alpha must also all be good numbers.
5. But npnp and yαy^\alpha are both good numbers, so by Claim B, (np,yα)>1(np, y^\alpha) > 1, which contradicts (n,x)=1(n, x) = 1 and (p,y)=1(p, y) = 1. This completes the proof.

Now let Pk(x)P_k(x) denote the set of prime factors of xx that are less than or equal to kk. In what follows, we call two numbers a,ba, b similar if and only if Pk(a)=Pk(b)P_k(a) = P_k(b). To prove the original statement, we only need to show: if a,ba, b are similar, then a,ba, b are both good or both bad simultaneously. Note that abab is similar to both aa and bb at the same time, so this is equivalent to: if ckc \ge k is similar to some multiple dd of it, then c,dc, d are both good or both bad simultaneously.

proof If not, then there exists a smallest d0d_0 such that there exists a factor c0kc_0 \ge k of it such that c0,d0c_0, d_0 differ in being good or bad. By the Claims above, such a d0d_0 does not exist.

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