Number theoryDifficulty 9.0ShortlistProve itSouth Africa
Find all positive integers n for which there exist non-negative integers a1,a2,…,an such that 2a11+2a21+⋯+2an1=3a11+3a22+⋯+3ann=1.
Solution
Let M=max{a1,…,an}. Then we have 3M=1⋅3M−a1+2⋅3M−a2+⋯+n⋅3M−an≡1+2+⋯+n=2n(n+1)(modn). Therefore, the number 2n(n+1) must be odd and hence n≡1(mod4) or n≡2(mod4).
We will now prove that each n∈N of the form 4k+1 or 4k+2 (for some k∈N) there exist integers a1,…,an with the described property.
For a sequence a=(a1,a2,…,an) let us introduce the following notation: L(a)=2a11+2a21+⋯+2an1andR(a)=3a11+3a22+⋯+3ann. Assume that for n=2m+1 there exists a sequence a=(a1,…,an) of non-negative integers with L(a)=R(a)=1. Consider the sequence a′=(a1′,…,an+1′) defined in the following way: aj′={aj,am+1+1,if j∈/{m+1,2m+2}if j∈{m+1,2m+2}. Then we have L(a′)=L(a)−2am+11+2⋅2am+1+11=1 R(a′)=R(a)−3am+1m+1+3am+1+1m+1+3am+1+12m+2=1. This implies that if the statement holds for 2m+1, then it holds for 2m+2.
Assume now that the statement holds for n=4m+2 for some m≥2, and assume that a=(a1,…,a4m+2) is the corresponding sequence of n non-negative integers. We will construct a following sequence a′=(a1′,a2′,…,a4m+13′) that satisfies L(a′)=R(a′)=1 thus proving that the statement holds for 4m+13. Define: aj′=⎩⎨⎧am+2+2aj+1aj/2+1am+2+3ajif j=m+2if j∈{2m+2,2m+3,2m+4,2m+5,2m+6}if j∈{4m+4,4m+6,4m+8,4m+10,4m+12}if j∈{4m+3,4m+5,4m+7,4m+9,4m+11,4m+13}otherwise. We now have L(a′)=L(a)−2am+21−j=2∑62a2m+j1+2am+2+21+j=2∑62a2m+j+11+j=2∑62a2m+j+11+6⋅2am+2+31=1. It remains to verify that R(a′)=R(a)=1. We write R(a′)−R(a)=R(am+2′m+2a4m+3′4m+3a4m+5′4m+5a4m+7′4m+7a4m+9′4m+9a4m+11′4m+11a4m+13′4m+13)−R(am+2m+2)+j=2∑6(R(a2m+j′2m+j,4m+j)−R(a2m+j2m+j)), where R(c1d1……ckdk)=3c1d1+⋯+3ckdk. For each j∈{2,3,4,5,6} we have R(a2m+j′2m+j,a4m+2j′4m+j)−R(a2m+j2m+j)=3a2m+j+12m+j+3a2m+j+14m+2j−3a2m+j2m+j=0. The first term in the expression for R(a′)−R(a) is also equal to 0 because R(am+2′,m+2,a4m+3′,4m+3,a4m+5′,4m+5,a4m+7′,4m+7,a4m+9′,4m+9,a4m+11′,4m+11,a4m+13′4m+13)−R(am+2m+2)=3am+2+2m+2+j=1∑63am+2+34m+2j+1−3am+2m+2=0. Thus R(a′)=0 and the statement holds for 4m+13. It remains to verify that there are sequences of lengths 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17. One way to choose these sequences is: (1),(2,1,3,4,4),(2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,4),(2,3,3,4,4,4,5,4,4,5,4,5,5),(3,2,2,4,4,5,5,6,5,6,6,6,6,6,6,6,5).
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