Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /47 of 97

Number theory Difficulty 7.9 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Does there exists a positive irrational number x,{x}, such that there are at most finite positive integers n,{n}, satisfy that for any integer 1kn,1\leq k\leq n, {kx}1n+1?\{kx\}\geq\frac 1{n+1}?

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

Solution

To determine whether there exists a positive irrational number x x such that there are at most finitely many positive integers n n satisfying the condition that for any integer 1kn 1 \leq k \leq n , {kx}1n+1 \{kx\} \geq \frac{1}{n+1} , we proceed as follows:

Assume for contradiction that there exists such an x x . This would imply that there exists a positive integer N N such that for all n>N n > N , the inequality {nx}>1n+1 \{nx\} > \frac{1}{n+1} holds. However, by Dirichlet's approximation theorem, for any irrational number x x and any positive integer n n , there exists an integer k k such that 1kn 1 \leq k \leq n and {kx}<1n+1 \{kx\} < \frac{1}{n+1} . This contradicts our assumption.

Therefore, no such positive irrational number x x exists.

The answer is: \boxed{\text{No}}.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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