Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /459 of 520

Combinatorics Difficulty 7.5 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Let N\mathbb{N} be the set of positive integers. Determine all positive integers kk for which there exist functions f:NNf:\mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N} and g:NNg: \mathbb{N}\to \mathbb{N} such that gg assumes infinitely many values and such that fg(n)(n)=f(n)+k f^{g(n)}(n)=f(n)+k holds for every positive integer nn.

(Remark. Here, fif^{i} denotes the function ff applied ii times i.e fi(j)=f(f(f(j)))f^{i}(j)=f(f(\dots f(j)\dots )).)

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

1. Define the problem and notation:
We are given functions f:NN f: \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N} and g:NN g: \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N} such that g g assumes infinitely many values. We need to find all positive integers k k for which the equation
fg(n)(n)=f(n)+k f^{g(n)}(n) = f(n) + k
holds for every positive integer n n . Here, fi f^i denotes the function f f applied i i times.

2. **Introduce the assertion P(n) P(n) :**
Let P(n) P(n) denote the assertion fg(n)(n)=f(n)+k f^{g(n)}(n) = f(n) + k .

3. Sublemma 01:
There exists m0 m_0 such that f(m)=f(n)+ak f(m) = f(n) + ak for any n,aN n, a \in \mathbb{N} .

Proof:
We use induction. Notice that there exists an integer m1 m_1 such that f(m1)=f(n)+k f(m_1) = f(n) + k . Consider P(m1) P(m_1) , we then have m2 m_2 such that f(m2)=f(m1)+k=f(n)+2k f(m_2) = f(m_1) + k = f(n) + 2k . Continuing this by induction, we get our desired result.

4. Sublemma 02:
For any integer ,m \ell, m , we have f(f(n)+mk)=f+1(n)+mk f^{\ell}(f(n) + mk) = f^{\ell + 1}(n) + mk .

Proof:
We prove this by induction. By the standard trick,
f(f(n)+k)=f(fg(n)(n))=fg(n)(f(n))=f(f(n))+k f(f(n) + k) = f(f^{g(n)}(n)) = f^{g(n)}(f(n)) = f(f(n)) + k
Therefore, we can get that if f(f(n)+k)=f+1(n)+k f^{\ell} (f(n)+k) = f^{\ell + 1}(n) + k , then
f+1(f(n)+k)=f(f(f(n))+k)=f+1(f(n))+k=f+2(n)+k f^{\ell + 1}(f(n) + k) = f^{\ell}(f(f(n)) + k) = f^{\ell + 1}(f(n)) + k = f^{\ell + 2}(n) + k
Now consider ma1 m_{a - 1} such that f(ma1)=f(n)+(a1)k=f(ma2)+k f(m_{a - 1}) = f(n) + (a - 1)k = f(m_{a - 2}) + k which exists by Sublemma 01, then
f(ma)=f1(f(ma1)+k)=f(ma1)+kf(f(n)+ak)=f+1(n)+ak f^{\ell} (m_a) = f^{\ell - 1}(f(m_{a - 1}) + k) = f^{\ell}(m_{a - 1}) + k \Rightarrow f^{\ell}(f(n) + ak) = f^{\ell + 1}(n) + ak

5. Main Claim:
There doesn't exist any value of >0 \ell > 0 such that f(n)=n f^{\ell} (n) = n for any nN n \in \mathbb{N} .

Proof:
Define A \mathcal{A} as the set of values of fk(n) f^{k}(n) , where kN k \in \mathbb{N} . To prove this, we'll prove that fa(n)+akA f^a(n) + ak \in \mathcal{A} for any aN a \in \mathbb{N} . We'll prove this by induction. For n=1 n = 1 , this is obvious. Then, plug P(fg(n)(n)) P(f^{g(n)}(n)) and we have
fg(f(n)+k)+g(n)(n)=f(f(n))+2k f^{g(f(n) + k) + g(n)}(n) = f(f(n)) + 2k
Now, suppose fa(n)+akA f^{a}(n) + ak \in \mathcal{A} , then we have fXn,a(n)=fa(n)+ak f^{X_{n,a}}(n) = f^a(n) + ak for some n,a n,a and Xn,a X_{n,a} is a variable depending on n n and a a . Then, replace all n n with fg(n)(n)=f(n)+k f^{g(n)}(n) = f(n) + k , we get
fXf(n)+k,a+g(n)(n)=fa(f(n)+k)+ak=fa+1(n)+(a+1)k f^{X_{f(n) + k,a} + g(n)}(n) = f^a(f(n) + k) + ak = f^{a + 1}(n) + (a + 1)k
Therefore, we are done by induction. Now notice that the sequence {fi(k)+ik}i=1 \{f^i(k) + ik\}_{i = 1}^{\infty} is unbounded. Since they are all members of A \mathcal{A} , then A=+ |\mathcal{A}| = +\infty . However, if there exists \ell such that f(n)=n f^{\ell}(n) = n , then A |\mathcal{A}| is finite, a contradiction.

6. Final steps:
Now, to finish this problem off. Notice that P(f(n)+ak) P(f(n) + ak) gives us
fg(f(n)+ak)(f(n)+ak)=f(f(n)+ak)+k f^{g(f(n) + ak)}(f(n) + ak) = f(f(n) + ak) + k
By our lemma, fg(f(n)+ak)+1(n)+ak=LHS=RHS=f(f(n))+(a+1)k f^{g(f(n) + ak) + 1}(n) + ak = LHS = RHS = f(f(n)) + (a + 1)k , which therefore gives us
fg(f(n)+ak)+1(n)=f(f(n))+k f^{g(f(n) + ak) + 1}(n) = f(f(n)) + k
for any aN a \in \mathbb{N} . However, this gives us
fg(f(n)+ak)+1(n)=f(f(n))+k=f(f(n)+k)=f(fg(n)(n))=fg(n)+1(n) f^{g(f(n) + ak) + 1}(n) = f(f(n)) + k = f(f(n) + k) = f(f^{g(n)}(n)) = f^{g(n) + 1}(n)
Therefore, we have
fg(f(n)+ak)g(n)(n)=n f^{|g(f(n) + ak) - g(n)|}(n) = n
for all nN n \in \mathbb{N} . Therefore, we have g(n)=g(f(n)+ak) g(n) = g(f(n) + ak) for all aN a \in \mathbb{N} . For k=1 k = 1 , there are no such functions obviously as this contradicts g g is unbounded.

7. **Construction for k2 k \ge 2 :**
Consider f(kn)=nk+1 f(k^n) = nk + 1 and f(nk+1)=kn+2 f(nk + 1) = k^n + 2 . For any a a , which is not a power of k k , we can let f(ak)=ak+2 f(ak) = ak + 2 and define f(x)=x+1 f(x) = x + 1 for any other integers x x not mentioned. One can define g(n) g(n) to be the smallest m m satisfying fm(n)=f(n)+k f^m(n) = f(n) + k . One can check that g g is unbounded since g(nk+1) g(nk + 1) is the number of integers m m such that kn+2mkn+1 k^n + 2 \le m \le k^{n + 1} and km1 k \nmid m - 1 .

The final answer is all k2 \boxed{\text{all } k \ge 2}

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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