2019 USAJMO Problems/Problem 2
Contents
[hide]Problem
Let be the set of all integers. Find all pairs of integers
for which there exist functions
and
satisfying
for all integers
.
Solution 1
We claim that the answer is .
Proof:
and
are surjective because
and
can take on any integral value, and by evaluating the parentheses in different order, we find
and
. We see that if
then
to
as well, so similarly if
then
, so now assume
.
We see that if then
, if
then
, if
then
... if
then
. This means that the
-element collection
contains all
residues mod
since
is surjective, so
. Doing the same to
yields that
, so this means that only
can work.
For let
and
, and for
let
and
, so
does work and are the only solutions, as desired.
-Stormersyle
Solution 2
We claim that and
exist if and only if
.
Only If:
For some fixed , let
.
If , then
. Suppose
. Then
, a contradiction. Thus,
. Similarly, if
, then
, satisfying
.
Otherwise, . We know that
,
,
, and so on:
and
for
.
Consider the value of . Suppose
. Then
and
, a contradiction. Thus,
. We repeat with
. Suppose
. Then
and
, a contradition. Thus,
. Continuing,
, and so on:
and
now for all
.
This defines for all
and
for all
.
This means that , and
which implies
.
As a result, maps each residue mod
to a unique residue mod
, so
. Similarly,
maps each residue mod
to a unique residue mod
, so
. Therefore,
.
If:
means that either
or
.
works for the former and
works for the latter, and we are done.
These problems are copyrighted © by the Mathematical Association of America, as part of the American Mathematics Competitions.
See also
2019 USAJMO (Problems • Resources) | ||
Preceded by Problem 1 |
Followed by Problem 3 | |
1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 | ||
All USAJMO Problems and Solutions |