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Number theory Difficulty 6.5 National olympiad Prove it

\quadLet Let \mathbb{Z}^{+}bethesetofpositiveintegers.Findallfunctions be the set of positive integers. Find all functions f: \mathbb{Z}^{+} \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}^{+}$ such that the following conditions both hold:
(i) f(n!)=f(n)!f(n!)=f(n)! for every positive integer nn,
(ii) mnm-n divides f(m)f(n)f(m)-f(n) whenever mm and nn are different positive integers.

Solution

There are three such functions: the constant functions 1, 2 and the identity function idZ+\mathrm{id}_{\mathbf{Z}^{+}}. These functions clearly satisfy the conditions in the hypothesis. Let us prove that there are only ones.

Consider such a function ff and suppose that it has a fixed point a3a \geq 3, that is f(a)=af(a)=a. Then a!,(a!)!,a!,(a!)!, \cdots are all fixed points of ff, hence the function ff has a strictly increasing sequence a1<a2<<ak<a_{1}<a_{2}<\cdots<a_{k}<\cdots of fixed points. For a positive integer nn, akna_{k}-n divides akf(n)=a_{k}-f(n)= f(ak)f(n)f\left(a_{k}\right)-f(n) for every kZ+k \in \mathbf{Z}^{+}. Also akna_{k}-n divides akna_{k}-n, so it divides akf(n)(akn)=a_{k}-f(n)-\left(a_{k}-n\right)= nf(n)n-f(n). This is possible only if f(n)=nf(n)=n, hence in this case we get f=idZ+f=\mathrm{id}_{\mathbf{Z}^{+}}.

Now suppose that ff has no fixed points greater than 2. Let p5p \geq 5 be a prime and notice that by Wilson's Theorem we have (p2)!1(modp)(p-2)!\equiv 1(\bmod p). Therefore pp divides (p2)!1(p-2)!-1. But (p2)!1(p-2)!-1 divides f((p2)!)f(1)f((p-2)!)-f(1), hence pp divides f((p2)!)f(1)=(f(p2))!f(1)f((p-2)!)-f(1)=(f(p-2))!-f(1). Clearly we have f(1)=1f(1)=1 or f(1)=2f(1)=2. As p5p \geq 5, the fact that pp divides (f(p2))!f(1)(f(p-2))!-f(1) implies that f(p2)<pf(p-2)<p. It is easy to check, again by Wilson's Theorem, that pp does not divide (p1)!1(p-1)!-1 and (p1)!2(p-1)!-2, hence we deduce that f(p2)p2f(p-2) \leq p-2. On the other hand, p3=(p2)1p-3=(p-2)-1 divides f(p2)f(1)(p2)1f(p-2)-f(1) \leq(p-2)-1. Thus either f(p2)=f(1)f(p-2)=f(1) or f(p2)=p2f(p-2)=p-2. As p23p-2 \geq 3, the last case is excluded, since the function ff has no fixed points greater than 2. It follows f(p2)=f(1)f(p-2)=f(1) and this property holds for all primes p5p \geq 5. Taking nn any positive integer, we deduce that p2np-2-n divides f(p2)f(n)=f(1)f(n)f(p-2)-f(n)=f(1)-f(n) for all primes p5p \geq 5. Thus f(n)=f(1)f(n)=f(1), hence ff is the constant function 1 or 2.

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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.