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Algebra Difficulty 7.0 National olympiad Prove it

Let SS be a finite set. For a positive integer nn, we say that a function f:SSf: S \rightarrow S is an nn-th power if there exists some function g:SSg: S \rightarrow S such that

f(x)=g(g(g(x)))g applied n times  f(x)=\underbrace{g(g(\ldots g(x) \ldots))}_{g \text { applied } n \text { times }}

for each xSx \in S.
Suppose that a function f:SSf: S \rightarrow S is an nn-th power for each positive integer nn. Is it necessarily true that f(f(x))=f(x)f(f(x))=f(x) for each xSx \in S ?
Answer: Yes.

Solution

Since SS is finite, there is a finite set of all functions {g1,g2,,gk}\left\{g_{1}, g_{2}, \ldots, g_{k}\right\} from SS to itself. Consider a function FF that assigns to each positive integer nn one of these functions such that ff is the nn-th power of the function F(n)F(n). So FF induces a partition of the set of all positive integers into sets PiP_{i} consisting of all the integers nn such that F(n)=giF(n)=g_{i}.
For any positive integer NN, consider the complete graph KNK_{N} on NN vertices labeled 1 through NN. We will colour the edges of KNK_{N} in kk colours C1,C2,,CkC_{1}, C_{2}, \ldots, C_{k} according to the partition in the following way: If xy|x-y| lies in PiP_{i}, colour the edge between xx and yy in the colour CiC_{i}. By Ramsey's theorem we can take NN to be large enough that there is a monochromatic triangle in KNK_{N}. This means that there are three integers x,yx, y and zz and an index ii for which xy,yz,zxPi|x-y|,|y-z|,|z-x| \in P_{i}. Hence there are three integers a,b,cPia, b, c \in P_{i} such that a+b=ca+b=c.
Therefore, some function gi:SSg_{i}: S \rightarrow S satisfies f(x)=gia(x)=gib(x)=gia+b(x)f(x)=g_{i}^{a}(x)=g_{i}^{b}(x)=g_{i}^{a+b}(x) for each xSx \in S. Hence, f(f(x))=gia(gib(x))=gia+b(x)=f(x)f(f(x))=g_{i}^{a}\left(g_{i}^{b}(x)\right)=g_{i}^{a+b}(x)=f(x) for each xSx \in S.
Remark: The fact that there is an index ii for which PiP_{i} contains three integers a,b,ca, b, c such that a+b=ca+b=c is known as Schur's theorem.

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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.