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Number theory Difficulty 8.4 Shortlist Find the answer

Find all integers nn with n4n \geq 4 for which there exists a sequence of distinct real numbers x1,,xnx_1,\dots,x_n such that each of the sets x 1,x 2,x 3 , x 2,x 3,x 4 , , x n-2 ,x n-1 ,x n , x n-1 ,x n, x 1 , and x n, x 1, x 2\text{x 1,x 2,x 3 , x 2,x 3,x 4 , , x n-2 ,x n-1 ,x n , x n-1 ,x n, x 1 , and x n, x 1, x 2} forms a 3-term arithmetic progression when arranged in increasing order.

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

The values of nn in question are the multiples of 3 starting with 9. Note that we interpret "distinct" in the problem statement to mean "pairwise distinct" (i.e., no two equal). See the remark below. We first show that such a sequence can only occur when nn is divisible by 3. If d1d_1 and d2d_2 are the common differences of the arithmetic progressions {xm,xm+1,xm+2}\{x_m, x_{m+1}, x_{m+2}\} and {xm+1,xm+2,xm+3}\{x_{m+1}, x_{m+2}, x_{m+3}\} for some mm, then d2{d1,2d1,d1/2}d_2 \in \{d_1, 2d_1, d_1/2\}. By scaling we may assume that the smallest common difference that occurs is 1; in this case, all of the common differences are integers. By shifting, we may assume that the xix_i are themselves all integers. We now observe that any three consecutive terms in the sequence have pairwise distinct residues modulo 3, forcing nn to be divisible by 3. We then observe that for any m2m \geq 2, we obtain a sequence of the desired form of length 3m+3=(2m1)+1+(m+1)+23m+3 = (2m-1)+1+(m+1)+2 by concatenating the arithmetic progressions (1,3,,4m3,4m1),4m2,(4m,4m4,,4,0),2.\begin{gather*} (1, 3, \dots, 4m-3, 4m-1), \\ 4m-2, (4m, 4m-4, \dots, 4, 0), 2. \end{gather*} We see that no terms are repeated by noting that the first parenthesized sequence consists of odd numbers; the second sequence consists of multiples of 4; and the remaining numbers 22 and 4m24m-2 are distinct (because m2m \geq 2) but both congruent to 2 mod 4. It remains to show that no such sequence occurs with n=6n=6. We may assume without loss of generality that the smallest common difference among the arithmetic progressions is 1 and occurs for {x1,x2,x3}\{x_1, x_2, x_3\}; by rescaling, shifting, and reversing the sequence as needed, we may assume that x1=0x_1 = 0 and (x2,x3){(1,2),(2,1)}(x_2, x_3) \in \{(1,2), (2,1)\}. We then have x4=3x_4 = 3 and (x5,x6){(4,5),(1,5),(1,7),(5,4),(5,7)}. (x_5, x_6) \in \{(4,5), (-1, -5), (-1, 7), (5, 4), (5, 7)\}. In none of these cases does {x5,x6,0}\{x_5, x_6, 0\} form an arithmetic progression.

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Source: Omni-MATH, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.