Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 8 / 180 of 180 #1880 of 1964

Problem 1880

IMO Shortlist mid-range; USAMO P2/P5
Combinatorics Difficulty 9.0 Prove it BMO 2022 shortlist · Balkan Mathematical Olympiad · 2022

Let n3n \ge 3 be an odd positive integer, and consider an n×nn \times n grid containing n2n^2 cells. Dionysus colours each cell either red or blue. A frog can hop directly between two cells if they have the same colour and share at least one vertex. Xanthias views the colouring, and wants to place frogs on kk of the cells so that any cell can be reached by a frog in a finite number of hops. Find the least value of kk such that Xanthias can always be successful regardless of the colouring chosen by Dionysus.

This one wants a proof. Work it on paper, then read the official solution and mark yourself. Be honest about it: the record is only any use to you if it is.

Official solution

Let GG be the graph whose vertices are all (n+1)2(n+1)^2 vertices of the grid and where two vertices are adjacent if and only if they are adjacent in the grid and moreover the two cells in either side of the corresponding edge have different colours.
The connected components of GG, excluding the isolated vertices, are precisely the boundaries between pairs of monochromatic regions each of which can be covered by a single frog. Each time we add one of these components in the grid, it creates exactly one new monochromatic region. So the number of frogs required is one more than the number of such components of GG.
It is easy to check that every corner vertex of the grid has degree 00, every boundary vertex of the grid has degree 00 or 11 and every 'internal' vertex of the grid has degree 00, 22 or 44. It is also easy to see that every component of GG which is not an isolated vertex must contain at least four vertices unless it is the boundary of a single corner of the grid, in which case it contains only three vertices.
Writing NN for the number of components which are not isolated vertices, we see that in total they contain at least 4N44N-4 vertices. (As at most four of them contain 33 vertices and all others contain 44 vertices.) Since we also have at least 44 components which are isolated vertices, then 4N=(4N4)+4(n+1)24N = (4N-4)+4 \le (n+1)^2. Thus N(n+1)24N \le \frac{(n+1)^2}{4} and therefore the minimal number of frogs required is (n+1)24+1\frac{(n+1)^2}{4} + 1.
This bound for n=2m+1n = 2m + 1 is achieved by putting coordinates (x,y)(x, y) with x,y{0,1,,2m}x, y \in \{0, 1, \dots, 2m\} in the cells and colouring red all cells both of whose coordinates are even, and blue all other cells. An example for n=9n = 9 is shown below.
Figure 1

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