For each real number , let
where is the set of positive integers for which is even. What is the largest real number such that for all ? (As usual, denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to .)
Solution
The answer is . For , let , so that . Note that for , we have .
We first show by contradiction that for any , .
Since each term in the geometric series is equal to the sum of all subsequent terms, if are different subsets of and the smallest positive integer in one of but not in the other is in , then . Assume ; then the smallest integer in one of but not in the other is in . Now for any , and we conclude that there are three consecutive integers that are not in : that is, , , are all odd. Since the difference between consecutive terms in , , is , we conclude that and so . But then and so , contradicting our assumption.
It remains to show that is the greatest lower bound for , .
For any , choose with ; then for , we have for , and so
\begin{align*}
\lfloor (3k-2)x \rfloor &= \lfloor (2k-2)+2/3-(3k-2)\epsilon \rfloor = 2k-2 \\
\lfloor (3k-1)x \rfloor &= \lfloor (2k-1)+1/3-(3k-1)\epsilon \rfloor = 2k-1 \\
\lfloor (3k)x \rfloor &= \lfloor (2k-1)+1-3k\epsilon \rfloor = 2k-1.
\end{align*}
It follows that is a subset of , and so
. This last expression tends to as , and so no number greater than can be a lower bound for for all .