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Mongolian IMO Team Selection Tests, 2015

Combinatorics Difficulty 7.9 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Mongolia

Let XX be a set of nn different positive integers. Denote by S(I)S(I) the sum of all elements in a subset II of XX and by XmX_m the set {S(I):I⊂X and ∣I∣=m}\{S(I) : I \subset X \text{ and } |I| = m\} for a positive integer m≤nm \leq n. If ∣Xm∣=m(n−m)+1|X_m| = m(n-m)+1 for an integer mm such that n−1>m>1n-1 > m > 1 then show that the elements of XX form an arithmetic progression.
(Bayarmagnai G.)

Solution

Let a0<a1<⋯<an−1a_0 < a_1 < \dots < a_{n-1} be elements of XX. For each positive integers i<n−mi < n-m and j≤mj \leq m, construct a subset AijA_{ij} of XX as Aij={ai,…,ai+m}∖{ai+j}A_{ij} = \{a_i, \dots, a_{i+m}\} \setminus \{a_{i+j}\}. Then it is clear that S(Aij)∈XmS(A_{ij}) \in X_m and
S(Ai0)>S(Ai1)>⋯>S(Aim−1)>S(Aim).(1) S(A_{i0}) > S(A_{i1}) > \dots > S(A_{im-1}) > S(A_{im}). \qquad (1)
Moreover, we have
Xm={S(Aij):0≤j≤m and 0≤i<n−m}, X_m = \{S(A_{ij}) : 0 \leq j \leq m \text{ and } 0 \leq i < n-m\},
since S(Ai0)=S(Ai+1m)S(A_{i0}) = S(A_{i+1m}). For each i<n−m−1i < n - m - 1 and j<mj < m, we consider the subset BijB_{ij} of XX given by Bij=Aij∪{ai+m+1}∖{ai+m}B_{ij} = A_{ij} \cup \{a_{i+m+1}\} \setminus \{a_{i+m}\}. Certainly, S(Bij)∈XmS(B_{ij}) \in X_m and
S(Ai+1m−1)=S(Bi0)>S(Bi1)>⋯>S(Bim−1)>S(Aim−1). S(A_{i+1m-1}) = S(B_{i0}) > S(B_{i1}) > \dots > S(B_{im-1}) > S(A_{im-1}).
Thus, between S(Aim−1)S(A_{im-1}) and S(Ai+1m−1)S(A_{i+1m-1}), there are m−1m-1 different elements of XmX_m and hence S(Aij)=S(Bij+1)S(A_{ij}) = S(B_{ij+1}) from (1). Therefore we get that
ai+j+1+ai+m=ai+j+ai+m+1, a_{i+j+1} + a_{i+m} = a_{i+j} + a_{i+m+1},
which implies that a0,a1,…,an−1a_0, a_1, \dots, a_{n-1} are in arithmetic progression.

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