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Number theory Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it

Problem 6. Find all pairs of integers (c,d)(c, d), both greater than 1 , such that the following holds:

For any monic polynomial QQ of degree dd with integer coefficients and for any prime p>p> c(2c+1)c(2 c+1), there exists a set SS of at most (2c12c+1)p\left(\frac{2 c-1}{2 c+1}\right) p integers, such that

sS{s,Q(s),Q(Q(s)),Q(Q(Q(s))),} \bigcup_{s \in S}\{s, Q(s), Q(Q(s)), Q(Q(Q(s))), \ldots\}

contains a complete residue system modulo pp (i.e., intersects with every residue class modulo pp ).

Croatia, Adrian BeKer

Solution

Solution. Those pairs are all pairs (c,d)(c, d) of positive integers greater than 1 such that dcd \leq c.

Assume first that dc+1d \geq c+1. Choose a large prime pp (we need p>2c2+cp>2 c^{2}+c ) congruent to 1 modulo dd (such a prime exists, by a particular case of Dirichlet's theorem; this particular case is easier to prove by using the cyclotomic polynomial Φd)\left.\Phi_{d}\right). Let Q(X)=XdQ(X)=X^{d}. Since dp1d \mid p-1, exactly 1+(p1)/d1+(p-1) / d residues modulo pp are dd-th powers; all other (d1)(p1)/d(d-1)(p-1) / d residue classes contain no values of PP. Hence, if a set SS satisfies the requirements, it should contain representatives of all those classes. But this is more than SS is allowed to contain, since

d1d(p1)>2c12c+1pcc+1(p1)>2c12c+1pp(c+1)(2c+1)>cc+1p>c(2c+1). \begin{aligned} \frac{d-1}{d}(p-1)>\frac{2 c-1}{2 c+1} p & \Longleftarrow \frac{c}{c+1}(p-1)>\frac{2 c-1}{2 c+1} p \\ & \Longleftarrow \frac{p}{(c+1)(2 c+1)}>\frac{c}{c+1} \Longleftarrow p>c(2 c+1) . \end{aligned}

We now show that such set SS exists, whenever dcd \leq c. To this end, usage is made of the lemma below.

Lemma. Fix an integer d2d \geq 2. Let G=(V,E)G=(V, E) be a directed graph, each vertex of which has exactly one outgoing edge and at most dd incoming edges. Assume further that there are at most dd loops in this graph. Then there exists a subset VV^{\prime} of VV of cardinality V1+d1dV\left|V^{\prime}\right| \leq 1+\frac{d-1}{d}|V| such that every vertex in V\VV \backslash V^{\prime} is the terminus of a directed path emanating from VV^{\prime}.

Proof. Consider any (weak) connected component G1=(V1,E1)G_{1}=\left(V_{1}, E_{1}\right) in GG - i.e., a component of the corresponding undirected graph. Since from each vertex emanates exactly one edge, the component contains a directed cycle (possibly a loop); and since the numbers of vertices and edges in G1G_{1} are equal, even an undirected cycle is unique. Hence, the component is a cycle with some trees rooting out of its vertices. With reference again to uniqueness of outgoing edges, the edges of these trees are all directed towards the cycle.

!

Now, let VV^{\prime} choose exactly one vertex from each component that is just a cycle; for any other component, let VV^{\prime} choose all its in-degree 0 vertices, i.e., the leaves of all trees rooting out of the vertices of the core-cycle - any vertex of such a tree can be reached from some leaf, and hence so can any vertex of the core-cycle.

To bound V\left|V^{\prime}\right| from above, let tt be the number of single-vertex components in GG, and notice that tdt \leq d, since there are at most dd loops in the graph. From each other component that is a cycle, VV^{\prime} chooses at most half of its vertices, so at most d1d\frac{d-1}{d}-th part of them. Finally, consider a component containing some trees. Since each in-degree is at most dd, at least 1d\frac{1}{d}-th part of the vertices have incoming edges, hence VV^{\prime} chooses at most d1d\frac{d-1}{d}-th part of the vertices. Consequently,

Vt+d1d(Vt)=td+d1dV1+d1dV \left|V^{\prime}\right| \leq t+\frac{d-1}{d}(|V|-t)=\frac{t}{d}+\frac{d-1}{d}|V| \leq 1+\frac{d-1}{d}|V|

as desired. This establishes the lemma.

Now let pp and QQ be chosen as in the problem statement. Consider a graph with vertex set Zp\mathbb{Z}_{p}. Regard QQ as a polynomial over Zp\mathbb{Z}_{p}, and draw an edge aQ(a)a \rightarrow Q(a) for every aa in Zp\mathbb{Z}_{p}. Since degQ=d\operatorname{deg} Q=d, each bb in Zp\mathbb{Z}_{p} has at most dd preimages, so the in-degree of each vertex is at most dd. Since QQ is monic and d>1d>1, the equation Q(x)=xQ(x)=x has at most dd roots in Zp\mathbb{Z}_{p}, hence the graph has at most dd loops. Thus, implementation of the lemma provides a set VV^{\prime} which is suitable as the required set SS. Indeed, the lemma statement shows that each residue is a repetitive image of some element of SS; and the implications below show that the cardinality of VV^{\prime} lies within the required range:

Vd1dp+12c12c+1pc1cp+12c12c+1ppc(2c+1)1pc(2c+1) \begin{aligned} \left|V^{\prime}\right| \leq \frac{d-1}{d} p+1 \leq \frac{2 c-1}{2 c+1} p & \Longleftarrow \frac{c-1}{c} p+1 \leq \frac{2 c-1}{2 c+1} p \\ & \Longleftarrow \frac{p}{c(2 c+1)} \geq 1 \Longleftarrow p \geq c(2 c+1) \end{aligned}

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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.