ISL 2018 C7
by randomusername, Jan 7, 2024, 8:31 PM
Problem. There are
circles on the plane, configured such that any pair meets twice. We go along each circle and record a label
or
at each intersection point with another circle. Thus, every point where two circles meet is labelled with
,
, or
. Show that if one of the circles has at least
labels of
, then at least one region determined by the circles has only
labels along its perimeter. 
First of all, observe that each circle arc proceeds from
to
in some order. It follows that any closed path along the circle arcs has an equal number of
and
labels.
A natural question to ask is whether the desired region occurs, provided that all the points along a circle are labelled
. Observe that in this case, the labels of all the points are determined, up to interchanging
and
everywhere. By induction, I was able to prove that actually, all the points will have
.
I began by drawing an arrow along each circle arc from
to
. Then, I noticed that in a region with only
labels along its perimeter, the arrows along the arcs that form its perimeter agree in their orientation, all clockwise or all counterclockwise. Hence, if a new circle is introduced where all intersections were
, the labels of each point between its two meeting points must change, say, in the exterior of the novel circle. Regions that it doesn't intersect continue to be all
. Regions that the new circle does cross are split into a clockwise and a counterclockwise region, interior and exterior to it. This naturally determines arrows on each arc of the new circle, oriented as antidirected, so that
and
labels may be written alternately along it.
Now that we know of a standard labelling of all the circles where each meeting point has
and
, we consider that changing the labels on
of the circles other than the given one with
labels
causes
points on the given circle to be
or
. It follows that
, so
.
Which points have
or
after
circles are changed up? Exactly those whose pair of circles has been reversed only once. This means that
points are such. Furthermore, each region has an equal number of
and
points, meaning
or more than one. Thus, as each such point lies in
of the regions, at most
regions have
or/and
labels.
If the number of regions determined by
pairwise intersecting circles is
, then
, because removing a circle causes
arcs to be removed that all bound disjoint pairs of regions. As
and
is well-known, we see that
.
The number of regions with only
is at least
. This is inconclusive, although I could obtain the positive bound of
unless
. If only one could verify that more than
regions have two
points, the answer would be clear. This occurs when the reversed circles do not form contiguous blocks.










First of all, observe that each circle arc proceeds from




A natural question to ask is whether the desired region occurs, provided that all the points along a circle are labelled




I began by drawing an arrow along each circle arc from







Now that we know of a standard labelling of all the circles where each meeting point has










Which points have











If the number of regions determined by







The number of regions with only





