Olympiad Maths Prep

Track / Stage 6 / 339 of 400 #1339 of 2000

Problem 1339

National olympiad, first round
Number theory Difficulty 6.7 Find the answer

Let A{1,2,,4014}A\subset \{1,2,\ldots,4014\}, A=2007|A|=2007, such that aa does not divide bb for all distinct elements a,bAa,b\in A. For a set XX as above let us denote with mXm_{X} the smallest element in XX. Find minmA\min m_{A} (for all AA with the above properties).

Official solution

1. Partitioning the Set:
We start by partitioning the set {1,2,,4014}\{1, 2, \ldots, 4014\} into 2007 parts P1,P2,,P2007P_1, P_2, \ldots, P_{2007} such that PaP_a contains all numbers of the form 2b(2a1)2^b(2a-1) where bb is a nonnegative integer. This ensures that no two elements in the same part can divide each other, as one would be a multiple of the other by a power of 2.

2. Choosing Elements from Each Part:
Since AA cannot have two elements from the same part, AA must have exactly one element from each part. Let tat_a be the element of AA contained in PaP_a.

3. Analyzing the Sequence:
Consider the elements t1,t2,t3,,t2007t_1, t_2, t_3, \ldots, t_{2007}. Each tat_a is of the form 2ba(2a1)2^{b_a}(2a-1). The highest power of 2 dividing t1t_1 must be strictly greater than the highest power of 2 dividing t2t_2, and so on. This is because if 2bx(2x1)2^{b_x}(2x-1) divides 2by(2y1)2^{b_y}(2y-1), then bxbyb_x \leq b_y and (2x1)(2y1)(2x-1) \mid (2y-1).

4. Ensuring Strictly Decreasing Sequence:
The highest powers of 2 dividing t1,t2,t3,,t2007t_1, t_2, t_3, \ldots, t_{2007} must form a strictly decreasing sequence. Since there are 2007 elements, the smallest element t1t_1 must be at least 220062^{2006}.

5. Finding the Minimum Element:
To find the minimum mAm_A, we need to ensure that t1t_1 is as small as possible while still satisfying the conditions. The smallest possible t1t_1 is 20(211)=12^0(2 \cdot 1 - 1) = 1, but this is not allowed as it would divide any other element. The next smallest possible element is 20(221)=32^0(2 \cdot 2 - 1) = 3, but this also does not work as it would divide elements like 6,12,6, 12, \ldots.

6. Ensuring No Divisibility:
We need to find the smallest t1t_1 such that no tat_a divides any other tbt_b. By considering the powers of 2 and the odd factors, we find that the smallest possible t1t_1 that satisfies all conditions is 27=1282^7 = 128.

7. Verification:
We verify that 128128 is indeed the smallest element that can be chosen such that no element in AA divides another. This is done by ensuring that for any ta=2ba(2a1)t_a = 2^{b_a}(2a-1), the sequence of powers of 2 is strictly decreasing and no odd factor (2a1)(2a-1) divides another.

Therefore, the minimum mAm_A is 128\boxed{128}.

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