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Combinatorics Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Find the answer

For any positive integer n,Snn, S_{n} be the set of all permutations of \{1,2,3, \ldots, n\}. For each permutation πSn\pi \in S_{n}, let f(π)f(\pi) be the number of ordered pairs (j,k)(j, k) for which π(j)>π(k)\pi(j)>\pi(k) and 1j<kn1 \leq j<k \leq n. Further define g(π)g(\pi) to be the number of positive integers knk \leq n such that π(k)k±1(modn)\pi(k) \equiv k \pm 1(\bmod n). Compute πS999(1)f(π)+g(π)\sum_{\pi \in S_{999}}(-1)^{f(\pi)+g(\pi)}

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Define an n×nn \times n matrix An(x)A_{n}(x) with entries ai,j=xa_{i, j}=x if ij±1(modn)i \equiv j \pm 1(\bmod n) and 1 otherwise. Let F(x)=πSn(1)f(π)xg(π)F(x)=\sum_{\pi \in S_{n}}(-1)^{f(\pi)} x^{g(\pi)} (here (1)f(π)(-1)^{f(\pi)} gives the signπ(u)π(v)uv\operatorname{sign} \prod \frac{\pi(u)-\pi(v)}{u-v} of the permutation π\pi). Note by construction that F(x)=det(An(x))F(x)=\operatorname{det}\left(A_{n}(x)\right). We find that the eigenvalues of An(x)A_{n}(x) are 2x+n22 x+n-2 (eigenvector of all ones) and (x1)(ωj+ωj1)(x-1)\left(\omega_{j}+\omega_{j}^{-1}\right), where ωj=e2πjin\omega_{j}=e^{\frac{2 \pi j i}{n}}, for 1jn11 \leq j \leq n-1. Since the determinant is the product of the eigenvalues, F(x)=(2x+n2)2n1(x1)n1k=1n1cos(2πkn)F(x)=(2 x+n-2) 2^{n-1}(x-1)^{n-1} \prod_{k=1}^{n-1} \cos \left(\frac{2 \pi k}{n}\right) Evaluate the product and plug in x=1x=-1 to finish. (As an aside, this approach also tells us that the sum is 0 whenever nn is a multiple of 4.)

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