AlgebraDifficulty 7.6National olympiad, round 2Prove it
Suppose that f and g are two functions defined on the set of positive integers and taking positive integer values. Suppose also that the equations f(g(n))=f(n)+1 and g(f(n))=g(n)+1 hold for all positive integers. Prove that f(n)=g(n) for all positive integer n. (Germany)
Solution
Throughout the solution, by N we denote the set of all positive integers. For any function h:N→N and for any positive integer k, define hk(x)=kh(h(…h(x)…)) (in particular, h0(x)=x). Observe that f(gk(x))=f(gk−1(x))+1=⋯=f(x)+k for any positive integer k, and similarly g(fk(x))=g(x)+k. Now let a and b be the minimal values attained by f and g, respectively; say f(nf)=a,g(ng)=b. Then we have f(gk(nf))=a+k,g(fk(ng))=b+k, so the function f attains all values from the set Nf={a,a+1,…}, while g attains all the values from the set Ng={b,b+1,…}. Next, note that f(x)=f(y) implies g(x)=g(f(x))−1=g(f(y))−1=g(y); surely, the converse implication also holds. Now, we say that x and y are similar (and write x∼y) if f(x)=f(y) (equivalently, g(x)=g(y)). For every x∈N, we define [x]={y∈N:x∼y}; surely, y1∼y2 for all y1,y2∈[x], so [x]=[y] whenever y∈[x]. Now we investigate the structure of the sets [x].
Claim 1. Suppose that f(x)∼f(y); then x∼y, that is, f(x)=f(y). Consequently, each class [x] contains at most one element from Nf, as well as at most one element from Ng. Proof. If f(x)∼f(y), then we have g(x)=g(f(x))−1=g(f(y))−1=g(y), so x∼y. The second statement follows now from the sets of values of f and g.
Next, we clarify which classes do not contain large elements.
Claim 2. For any x∈N, we have [x]⊆{1,2,…,b−1} if and only if f(x)=a. Analogously, [x]⊆{1,2,…,a−1} if and only if g(x)=b. Proof. We will prove that [x]⊈{1,2,…,b−1}⟺f(x)>a; the proof of the second statement is similar. Note that f(x)>a implies that there exists some y satisfying f(y)=f(x)−1, so f(g(y))=f(y)+1=f(x), and hence x∼g(y)≥b. Conversely, if b≤c∼x then c=g(y) for some y∈N, which in turn follows f(x)=f(g(y))=f(y)+1≥a+1, and hence f(x)>a.
Claim 2 implies that there exists exactly one class contained in {1,…,a−1} (that is, the class [ng]), as well as exactly one class contained in {1,…,b−1} (the class [nf]). Assume for a moment that a≤b; then [ng] is contained in {1,…,b−1} as well, hence it coincides with [ng]. So, we get that f(x)=a⟺g(x)=b⟺x∼nf∼ng.
Claim 3. a=b. Proof. By Claim 2, we have [a]=[nf], so [a] should contain some element a′≥b by Claim 2 again. If a=a′, then [a] contains two elements ≥a which is impossible by Claim 1. Therefore, a=a′≥b. Similarly, b≥a.
Now we are ready to prove the problem statement. First, we establish the following
Claim 4. For every integer d≥0,fd+1(nf)=gd+1(nf)=a+d. Proof. Induction on d. For d=0, the statement follows from (1) and Claim 3. Next, for d>1 from the induction hypothesis we have fd+1(nf)=f(fd(nf))=f(gd(nf))=f(nf)+d=a+d. The equality gd+1(nf)=a+d is analogous.
Finally, for each x∈N, we have f(x)=a+d for some d≥0, so f(x)=f(gd(nf)) and hence x∼gd(nf). It follows that g(x)=g(gd(nf))=gd+1(nf)=a+d=f(x) by Claim 4.
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