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Number theory Difficulty 7.5 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Let Z>0\mathbb{Z}_{>0} denote the set of positive integers. Consider a function f:Z>0Z>0f: \mathbb{Z}_{>0} \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}_{>0}. For any m,nZ>0m, n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0} we write fn(m)=f(f(fn(m)))f^{n}(m)=\underbrace{f(f(\ldots f}_{n}(m) \ldots)). Suppose that ff has the following two properties: (i) If m,nZ>0m, n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}, then fn(m)mnZ>0\frac{f^{n}(m)-m}{n} \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}; (ii) The set Z>0\{f(n)nZ>0}\mathbb{Z}_{>0} \backslash\left\{f(n) \mid n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}\right\} is finite. Prove that the sequence f(1)1,f(2)2,f(3)3,f(1)-1, f(2)-2, f(3)-3, \ldots is periodic. (Singapore)

Solution

We split the solution into three steps. In the first of them, we show that the function ff is injective and explain how this leads to a useful visualization of ff. Then comes the second step, in which most of the work happens: its goal is to show that for any nZ>0n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0} the sequence n,f(n),f2(n),n, f(n), f^{2}(n), \ldots is an arithmetic progression. Finally, in the third step we put everything together, thus solving the problem.  Step 1. We commence by checking that f is injective. For this purpose, we consider any \underline{\text { Step 1. We commence by checking that } f \text { is injective. For this purpose, we consider any }} m,kZ>0m, k \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0} with f(m)=f(k)f(m)=f(k). By (i)(i), every positive integer nn has the property that kmn=fn(m)mnfn(k)kn \frac{k-m}{n}=\frac{f^{n}(m)-m}{n}-\frac{f^{n}(k)-k}{n} is a difference of two integers and thus integral as well. But for n=km+1n=|k-m|+1 this is only possible if k=mk=m. Thereby, the injectivity of ff is established. Now recall that due to condition (ii) there are finitely many positive integers a1,,aka_{1}, \ldots, a_{k} such that Z>0\mathbb{Z}_{>0} is the disjoint union of {a1,,ak}\left\{a_{1}, \ldots, a_{k}\right\} and {f(n)nZ>0}\left\{f(n) \mid n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}\right\}. Notice that by plugging n=1n=1 into condition (i)(i) we get f(m)>mf(m)>m for all mZ>0m \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}. We contend that every positive integer nn may be expressed uniquely in the form n=fj(ai)n=f^{j}\left(a_{i}\right) for some j0j \geqslant 0 and i{1,,k}i \in\{1, \ldots, k\}. The uniqueness follows from the injectivity of ff. The existence can be proved by induction on nn in the following way. If n{a1,,ak}n \in\left\{a_{1}, \ldots, a_{k}\right\}, then we may take j=0j=0; otherwise there is some n0n^{\prime}0; and T=1T=1 and A=0A=0 if t=0t=0. For every integer nAn \geqslant A, the interval Δn=[n+1,n+T]\Delta_{n}=[n+1, n+T] contains exactly T/TiT / T_{i} elements of the ith i^{\text {th }} row (1it)(1 \leqslant i \leqslant t). Therefore, the number of elements from the last (kt)(k-t) rows of the Table contained in Δn\Delta_{n} does not depend on nAn \geqslant A. It is not possible that none of these intervals Δn\Delta_{n} contains an element from the ktk-t last rows, because infinitely many numbers appear in these rows. It follows that for each nAn \geqslant A the interval Δn\Delta_{n} contains at least one member from these rows. This yields that for every positive integer dd, the interval [A+1,A+(d+1)(kt)T][A+1, A+(d+1)(k-t) T] contains at least (d+1)(kt)(d+1)(k-t) elements from the last ktk-t rows; therefore, there exists an index xx with t+1xkt+1 \leqslant x \leqslant k, possibly depending on dd, such that our interval contains at least d+1d+1 elements from the xth x^{\text {th }} row. In this situation we have fd(ax)A+(d+1)(kt)T. f^{d}\left(a_{x}\right) \leqslant A+(d+1)(k-t) T . Finally, since there are finitely many possibilities for xx, there exists an index xt+1x \geqslant t+1 such that the set X={dZ>0fd(ax)A+(d+1)(kt)T} X=\left\{d \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0} \mid f^{d}\left(a_{x}\right) \leqslant A+(d+1)(k-t) T\right\} is infinite. Thereby we have found the "dense row" promised above. By assumption (i)(i), for every dXd \in X the number βd=fd(ax)axd \beta_{d}=\frac{f^{d}\left(a_{x}\right)-a_{x}}{d} is a positive integer not exceeding A+(d+1)(kt)TdAd+2d(kt)Td=A+2(kt)T \frac{A+(d+1)(k-t) T}{d} \leqslant \frac{A d+2 d(k-t) T}{d}=A+2(k-t) T This leaves us with finitely many choices for βd\beta_{d}, which means that there exists a number TxT_{x} such that the set Y={dXβd=Tx} Y=\left\{d \in X \mid \beta_{d}=T_{x}\right\} is infinite. Notice that we have fd(ax)=ax+dTxf^{d}\left(a_{x}\right)=a_{x}+d \cdot T_{x} for all dYd \in Y. Now we are prepared to prove that the numbers in the xth x^{\text {th }} row form an arithmetic progression, thus coming to a contradiction with our assumption. Let us fix any positive integer jj. Since the set YY is infinite, we can choose a number yYy \in Y such that yj>fj(ax)(ax+jTx)y-j>\left|f^{j}\left(a_{x}\right)-\left(a_{x}+j T_{x}\right)\right|. Notice that both numbers fy(ax)fj(ax)=fyj(fj(ax))fj(ax) and fy(ax)(ax+jTx)=(yj)Tx f^{y}\left(a_{x}\right)-f^{j}\left(a_{x}\right)=f^{y-j}\left(f^{j}\left(a_{x}\right)\right)-f^{j}\left(a_{x}\right) \quad \text { and } \quad f^{y}\left(a_{x}\right)-\left(a_{x}+j T_{x}\right)=(y-j) T_{x} are divisible by yjy-j. Thus, the difference between these numbers is also divisible by yjy-j. Since the absolute value of this difference is less than yjy-j, it has to vanish, so we get fj(ax)=f^{j}\left(a_{x}\right)= ax+jTxa_{x}+j \cdot T_{x}. Hence, it is indeed true that all rows of the Table are arithmetic progressions. Step 3. Keeping the above notation in force, we denote the step of the ith i^{\text {th }} row of the table by TiT_{i}. Now we claim that we have f(n)n=f(n+T)(n+T)f(n)-n=f(n+T)-(n+T) for all nZ>0n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}, where T=lcm(T1,,Tk) T=\operatorname{lcm}\left(T_{1}, \ldots, T_{k}\right) To see this, let any nZ>0n \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0} be given and denote the index of the row in which it appears in the Table by ii. Then we have fj(n)=n+jTif^{j}(n)=n+j \cdot T_{i} for all jZ>0j \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0}, and thus indeed f(n+T)f(n)=f1+T/Ti(n)f(n)=(n+T+Ti)(n+Ti)=T f(n+T)-f(n)=f^{1+T / T_{i}}(n)-f(n)=\left(n+T+T_{i}\right)-\left(n+T_{i}\right)=T This concludes the solution. Comment 1. There are some alternative ways to complete the second part once the index xx corresponding to a "dense row" is found. For instance, one may show that for some integer TxT_{x}^{*} the set Y={jZ>0fj+1(ax)fj(ax)=Tx} Y^{*}=\left\{j \in \mathbb{Z}_{>0} \mid f^{j+1}\left(a_{x}\right)-f^{j}\left(a_{x}\right)=T_{x}^{*}\right\} is infinite, and then one may conclude with a similar divisibility argument. Comment 2. It may be checked that, conversely, any way to fill out the Table with finitely many arithmetic progressions so that each positive integer appears exactly once, gives rise to a function ff satisfying the two conditions mentioned in the problem. For example, we may arrange the positive integers as follows: | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | \ldots | | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | :---: | | 1 | 5 | 9 | 13 | 17 | \ldots | | 3 | 7 | 11 | 15 | 19 | \ldots | This corresponds to the function f(n)={n+2 if n is even n+4 if n is odd  f(n)= \begin{cases}n+2 & \text { if } n \text { is even } \\ n+4 & \text { if } n \text { is odd }\end{cases} As this example shows, it is not true that the function nf(n)nn \mapsto f(n)-n has to be constant.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.