Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 6 / 347 of 400 #1347 of 2000

Problem 1347

National olympiad, first round
Combinatorics Difficulty 6.8 Find the answer

Let X\mathbb X be the set of all bijective functions from the set S={1,2,,n}S=\{1,2,\cdots, n\} to itself. For each fX,f\in \mathbb X, define
Tf(j)={1,   if  f(12)(j)=j,0,   otherwiseT_f(j)=\left\{\begin{aligned} 1, \ \ \ & \text{if} \ \ f^{(12)}(j)=j,\\ 0, \ \ \ & \text{otherwise}\end{aligned}\right.
Determine fXj=1nTf(j).\sum_{f\in\mathbb X}\sum_{j=1}^nT_{f}(j).
(Here f(k)(x)=f(f(k1)(x))f^{(k)}(x)=f(f^{(k-1)}(x)) for all k2.k\geq 2.)

Official solution

1. Understanding the Problem:
We need to determine the sum fXj=1nTf(j)\sum_{f\in\mathbb{X}}\sum_{j=1}^n T_f(j), where Tf(j)T_f(j) is defined as:
Tf(j)={1if f(12)(j)=j,0otherwise T_f(j) = \begin{cases} 1 & \text{if } f^{(12)}(j) = j, \\ 0 & \text{otherwise} \end{cases}
Here, f(k)(x)f^{(k)}(x) denotes the kk-th iterate of ff, i.e., applying ff kk times.

2. Counting Functions with Cycles of Length 12:
We need to count the number of bijective functions ff such that f(12)(j)=jf^{(12)}(j) = j for a given jj. This means jj must be part of a cycle of length 12 in the permutation ff.

3. Cycle Lengths in Permutations:
In a permutation of nn elements, the cycle containing jj can have lengths that are divisors of 12 (i.e., 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12). We are interested in the case where the cycle length is exactly 12.

4. Counting Permutations with a Cycle of Length 12:
To form a cycle of length 12 including jj, we need to choose 11 other elements from the remaining n1n-1 elements. The number of ways to choose these 11 elements is (n111)\binom{n-1}{11}. The number of ways to arrange these 12 elements in a cycle is (121)!(12-1)! (since a cycle of length 12 has (121)!(12-1)! distinct arrangements).

5. Counting Remaining Elements:
The remaining n12n-12 elements can be arranged in (n12)!(n-12)! ways.

6. Total Number of Permutations with a Cycle of Length 12:
Therefore, the total number of permutations where jj is in a cycle of length 12 is:
(n111)11!(n12)!=(n1)!11!11!(n12)!=(n1)! \binom{n-1}{11} \cdot 11! \cdot (n-12)! = \frac{(n-1)!}{11!} \cdot 11! \cdot (n-12)! = (n-1)!

7. Probability Calculation:
The probability that a randomly chosen permutation ff has f(12)(j)=jf^{(12)}(j) = j is:
P[Tf(j)=1]=(n1)!n!=1n \mathbb{P}[T_f(j) = 1] = \frac{(n-1)!}{n!} = \frac{1}{n}

8. Expected Value:
The expected value of Tf(j)T_f(j) for a fixed jj is:
E[Tf(j)]=P[Tf(j)=1]=1n \mathbb{E}[T_f(j)] = \mathbb{P}[T_f(j) = 1] = \frac{1}{n}

9. **Summing Over All jj:**
Summing over all jj from 1 to nn, we get:
j=1nE[Tf(j)]=j=1n1n=1 \sum_{j=1}^n \mathbb{E}[T_f(j)] = \sum_{j=1}^n \frac{1}{n} = 1

10. **Summing Over All ff:**
Since there are n!n! permutations in X\mathbb{X}, the total sum is:
fXj=1nTf(j)=n!1=n! \sum_{f\in\mathbb{X}}\sum_{j=1}^n T_f(j) = n! \cdot 1 = n!

The final answer is n!\boxed{n!}

Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic, difficulty and ordering added by this site.