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Algebra Difficulty 7.5 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

For a polynomialƒ PP and a positive integer nn, define PnP_{n} as the number of positive integer pairs (a,b)(a, b) such that a<bna<b \leq n and P(a)P(b)|P(a)|-|P(b)| is divisible by nn. Determine all polynomial PP with integer coefficients such that for all positive integers n,Pn2021n, P_{n} \leq 2021.

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Solution

There are two possible families of solutions: - P(x)=x+dP(x)=x+d, for some integer d2022d \geq-2022. - P(x)=x+dP(x)=-x+d, for some integer d2022d \leq 2022. Suppose PP satisfies the problem conditions. Clearly PP cannot be a constant polynomial. Notice that a polynomial PP satisfies the conditions if and only if P-P also satisfies them. Hence, we may assume the leading coefficient of PP is positive. Then, there exists positive integer MM such that P(x)>0P(x)>0 for xMx \geq M. Lemma 1. For any positive integer nn, the integers P(1),P(2),,P(n)P(1), P(2), \ldots, P(n) leave pairwise distinct remainders upon division by nn. Proof. Assume for contradiction that this is not the case. Then, for some 1y<zn1 \leq y<z \leq n, there exists 0rn10 \leq r \leq n-1 such that P(y)P(z)r(modn)P(y) \equiv P(z) \equiv r(\bmod n). Since P(an+b)P(b)(modn)P(a n+b) \equiv P(b)(\bmod n) for all a,ba, b integers, we have P(an+y)P(an+z)r(modn)P(a n+y) \equiv P(a n+z) \equiv r(\bmod n) for any integer aa. Let AA be a positive integer such that AnMA n \geq M, and let kk be a positive integer such that k>2A+2021k>2 A+2021. Each of the 2(kA)2(k-A) integers P(An+y),P(An+z),P((A+1)n+y),P((A+1)n+z),,P((k1)n+y),P((k1)n+z)P(A n+y), P(A n+z), P((A+1) n+y), P((A+1) n+z), \ldots, P((k-1) n+y), P((k-1) n+z) leaves one of the kk remainders r,n+r,2n+r,,(k1)n+rr, n+r, 2 n+r, \ldots,(k-1) n+r upon division by knk n. This implies that at least 2(kA)k=k2A2(k-A)-k=k-2 A (possibly overlapping) pairs leave the same remainder upon division by knk n. Since k2A>2021k-2 A>2021 and all of the 2(kA)2(k-A) integers are positive, we find more than 2021 pairs a,ba, b with a<bkna<b \leq k n for which P(b)P(a)|P(b)|-|P(a)| is divisible by knk n - hence, Pkn>2021P_{k n}>2021, a contradiction. Next, we show that PP is linear. Assume that this is not the case, i.e., degP2\operatorname{deg} P \geq 2. Then we can find a positive integer kk such that P(k)P(1)kP(k)-P(1) \geq k. This means that among the integers P(1),P(2),,P(P(k)P(1))P(1), P(2), \ldots, P(P(k)-P(1)), two of them, namely P(k)P(k) and P(1)P(1), leave the same remainder upon division by P(k)P(1)P(k)-P(1) - contradicting the lemma (by taking n=P(k)P(1)n=P(k)-P(1) ). Hence, PP must be linear. We can now write P(x)=cx+dP(x)=c x+d with c>0c>0. We prove that c=1c=1 by two ways. Solution 1 If c2c \geq 2, then P(1)P(1) and P(2)P(2) leave the same remainder upon division by cc, contradicting the Lemma. Hence c=1c=1. Solution 2 Suppose c2c \geq 2. Let nn be a positive integer such that n>2cM,n(132c)>2022n>2 c M, n\left(1-\frac{3}{2 c}\right)>2022 and 2cn2 c \mid n. Notice that for any positive integers ii such that 3n2c+i<n,P(3n2c+i)P(n2c+i)=n\frac{3 n}{2 c}+i<n, P\left(\frac{3 n}{2 c}+i\right)-P\left(\frac{n}{2 c}+i\right)=n. Hence, (n2c+i,3n2c+i)\left(\frac{n}{2 c}+i, \frac{3 n}{2 c}+i\right) satisfies the condition in the question for all positive integers ii such that 3n2c+i<n\frac{3 n}{2 c}+i<n. Hence, Pn>2021P_{n}>2021, a contradiction. Then, c=1c=1. If d2023d \leq-2023, then there are at least 2022 pairs a<ba<b such that P(a)=P(b)P(a)=P(b), namely (a,b)=(a, b)= (1,2d1),(2,2d2),,(d1,d+1)(1,-2 d-1),(2,-2 d-2), \ldots,(-d-1,-d+1). This implies that d2022d \geq-2022. Finally, we verify that P(x)=x+dP(x)=x+d satisfies the condition for any d2022d \geq-2022. Fix a positive integer nn. Note that P(b)P(a)<n| P(b)|-| P(a)|<n for all positive integers a<bna<b \leq n, so the only pairs a,ba, b for which P(b)P(a)|P(b)|-|P(a)| could be divisible by nn are those for which P(a)=P(b)|P(a)|=|P(b)|. When d2022d \geq-2022, there are indeed at most 2021 such pairs.

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