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Number theory Difficulty 6.2 National olympiad Prove it

Find all functions f:NNf: \mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{N} such that

n!+f(m)!f(n)!+f(m!) n!+f(m)!\mid f(n)!+f(m!)

for all m,nNm, n \in \mathbb{N}.

Solution

Answer: f(n)=nf(n)=n for all nNn \in \mathbb{N}.
Taking m=n=1m=n=1 in ()(*) yields 1+f(1)!f(1)!+f(1)1+f(1)!\mid f(1)!+f(1) and hence 1+f(1)!f(1)11+f(1)!\mid f(1)-1. Since f(1)1<f(1)!+1|f(1)-1|<f(1)!+1, this implies f(1)=1f(1)=1.
For m=1m=1 in ()(*) we have n!+1f(n)!+1n!+1 \mid f(n)!+1, which implies n!f(n)n!\leqslant f(n), i.e. f(n)nf(n) \geqslant n.
On the other hand, taking (m,n)=(1,p1)(m, n)=(1, p-1) for any prime number pp and using Wilson's theorem we obtain p(p1)!+1f(p1)!+1p|(p-1)!+1| f(p-1)!+1, implying f(p1)<pf(p-1)<p. Therefore

f(p1)=p1 f(p-1)=p-1

Next, fix a positive integer mm. For any prime number pp, setting n=p1n=p-1 in (*) yields (p1)!+f(m)!(p1)!+f(m!)(p-1)!+f(m)!\mid(p-1)!+f(m!), and hence

(p1)!+f(m)!f(m!)f(m)! for all prime numbers p (p-1)!+f(m)!\mid f(m!)-f(m)!\text { for all prime numbers } p

This implies f(m!)=f(m)!f(m!)=f(m)! for all mNm \in \mathbb{N}, so ()(*) can be rewritten as n!+f(m)!f(n)!+f(m)!n!+f(m)!\mid f(n)!+f(m)!. This implies

n!+f(m)!f(n)!n! for all n,mN n!+f(m)!\mid f(n)!-n!\text { for all } n, m \in \mathbb{N}

Fixing nNn \in \mathbb{N} and taking mNm \in \mathbb{N} large enough, we conclude that f(n)!=n!f(n)! = n!, i.e. f(n)=nf(n)=n, for all nNn \in \mathbb{N}.
One readily checks that the identity function satisfies the conditions of the problem.

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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.