Olympiad problems

2014 Taiwan TST Round 2, 5

Tags: induction , combinatorics , Additive combinatorics , partition , IMO Shortlist

Let $n$ be a positive integer, and let $A$ be a subset of $\{ 1,\cdots ,n\}$. An $A$-partition of $n$ into $k$ parts is a representation of n as a sum $n = a_1 + \cdots + a_k$, where the parts $a_1 , \cdots , a_k $ belong to $A$ and are not necessarily distinct. The number of different parts in such a partition is the number of (distinct) elements in the set $\{ a_1 , a_2 , \cdots , a_k \} $. We say that an $A$-partition of $n$ into $k$ parts is optimal if there is no $A$-partition of $n$ into $r$ parts with $r<k$. Prove that any optimal $A$-partition of $n$ contains at most $\sqrt[3]{6n}$ different parts.

2009 China Team Selection Test, 2

Tags: modular arithmetic , algebra , polynomial , number theory , combinatorics proposed , combinatorics , Additive combinatorics

Find all the pairs of integers $ (a,b)$ satisfying $ ab(a \minus{} b)\not \equal{} 0$ such that there exists a subset $ Z_{0}$ of set of integers $ Z,$ for any integer $ n$, exactly one among three integers $ n,n \plus{} a,n \plus{} b$ belongs to $ Z_{0}$.

1989 IMO Shortlist, 22

Tags: combinatorics , partition , Additive combinatorics , Set systems , IMO , IMO 1989

Prove that in the set $ \{1,2, \ldots, 1989\}$ can be expressed as the disjoint union of subsets $ A_i, \{i \equal{} 1,2, \ldots, 117\}$ such that [b]i.)[/b] each $ A_i$ contains 17 elements [b]ii.)[/b] the sum of all the elements in each $ A_i$ is the same.

1995 IMO Shortlist, 7

Tags: combinatorics , partition , Additive combinatorics , Additive Number Theory , IMO Shortlist

Does there exist an integer $ n > 1$ which satisfies the following condition? The set of positive integers can be partitioned into $ n$ nonempty subsets, such that an arbitrary sum of $ n \minus{} 1$ integers, one taken from each of any $ n \minus{} 1$ of the subsets, lies in the remaining subset.

1983 IMO Longlists, 51

Tags: number theory , Additive Number Theory , Additive combinatorics , IMO Shortlist

Decide whether there exists a set $M$ of positive integers satisfying the following conditions: (i) For any natural number $m>1$ there exist $a, b \in M$ such that $a+b = m.$ (ii) If $a, b, c, d \in M$, $a, b, c, d > 10$ and $a + b = c + d$, then $a = c$ or $a = d.$

2014 IMO Shortlist, N1

Tags: IMO Shortlist , number theory , Frobenius , Additive combinatorics , Additive Number Theory , additive representation , induction

Let $n \ge 2$ be an integer, and let $A_n$ be the set \[A_n = \{2^n - 2^k\mid k \in \mathbb{Z},\, 0 \le k < n\}.\] Determine the largest positive integer that cannot be written as the sum of one or more (not necessarily distinct) elements of $A_n$ . [i]Proposed by Serbia[/i]

1992 IMO Longlists, 77

Tags: combinatorics , Ramsey Theory , Additive Number Theory , Additive combinatorics , IMO Shortlist , Extremal combinatorics , IMO Longlist

Show that if $994$ integers are chosen from $1, 2,\cdots , 1992$ and one of the chosen integers is less than $64$, then there exist two among the chosen integers such that one of them is a factor of the other.

2012 USA TSTST, 1

Tags: symmetry , pigeonhole principle , arithmetic sequence , algebra , Sequences , Additive combinatorics

Find all infinite sequences $a_1, a_2, \ldots$ of positive integers satisfying the following properties: (a) $a_1 < a_2 < a_3 < \cdots$, (b) there are no positive integers $i$, $j$, $k$, not necessarily distinct, such that $a_i+a_j=a_k$, (c) there are infinitely many $k$ such that $a_k = 2k-1$.

1979 IMO Shortlist, 18

Tags: number theory , Additive Number Theory , Additive combinatorics , system of equations , IMO Shortlist , IMO Longlist

Let $m$ positive integers $a_1, \dots , a_m$ be given. Prove that there exist fewer than $2^m$ positive integers $b_1, \dots , b_n$ such that all sums of distinct $b_k$’s are distinct and all $a_i \ (i \leq m)$ occur among them.

2017 Romanian Masters In Mathematics, 1

Tags: algebra , RMM , Additive combinatorics , representation , RMM 2016

[b](a)[/b] Prove that every positive integer $n$ can be written uniquely in the form \[n=\sum_{j=1}^{2k+1}(-1)^{j-1}2^{m_j},\] where $k\geq 0$ and $0\le m_1<m_2\cdots <m_{2k+1}$ are integers. This number $k$ is called [i]weight[/i] of $n$. [b](b)[/b] Find (in closed form) the difference between the number of positive integers at most $2^{2017}$ with even weight and the number of positive integers at most $2^{2017}$ with odd weight.

2014 Belarus Team Selection Test, 2

Tags: algorithm , combinatorics , Additive combinatorics , IMO Shortlist

Let $n$ be an positive integer. Find the smallest integer $k$ with the following property; Given any real numbers $a_1 , \cdots , a_d $ such that $a_1 + a_2 + \cdots + a_d = n$ and $0 \le a_i \le 1$ for $i=1,2,\cdots ,d$, it is possible to partition these numbers into $k$ groups (some of which may be empty) such that the sum of the numbers in each group is at most $1$.

2013 IMO Shortlist, C5

Tags: function , combinatorics , Additive combinatorics , Sequence , IMO Shortlist

Let $r$ be a positive integer, and let $a_0 , a_1 , \cdots $ be an infinite sequence of real numbers. Assume that for all nonnegative integers $m$ and $s$ there exists a positive integer $n \in [m+1, m+r]$ such that \[ a_m + a_{m+1} +\cdots +a_{m+s} = a_n + a_{n+1} +\cdots +a_{n+s} \] Prove that the sequence is periodic, i.e. there exists some $p \ge 1 $ such that $a_{n+p} =a_n $ for all $n \ge 0$.

2017 Romanian Master of Mathematics, 1

Tags: algebra , RMM , Additive combinatorics , representation , RMM 2016

[b](a)[/b] Prove that every positive integer $n$ can be written uniquely in the form \[n=\sum_{j=1}^{2k+1}(-1)^{j-1}2^{m_j},\] where $k\geq 0$ and $0\le m_1<m_2\cdots <m_{2k+1}$ are integers. This number $k$ is called [i]weight[/i] of $n$. [b](b)[/b] Find (in closed form) the difference between the number of positive integers at most $2^{2017}$ with even weight and the number of positive integers at most $2^{2017}$ with odd weight.

2007 IMO Shortlist, 3

Tags: modular arithmetic , number theory , Divisibility , Extremal combinatorics , Additive combinatorics , IMO Shortlist

Let $ X$ be a set of 10,000 integers, none of them is divisible by 47. Prove that there exists a 2007-element subset $ Y$ of $ X$ such that $ a \minus{} b \plus{} c \minus{} d \plus{} e$ is not divisible by 47 for any $ a,b,c,d,e \in Y.$ [i]Author: Gerhard Wöginger, Netherlands[/i]

1983 IMO, 3

Tags: modular arithmetic , number theory , Frobenius , Additive Number Theory , Additive combinatorics , IMO , IMO 1983

Let $a,b$ and $c$ be positive integers, no two of which have a common divisor greater than $1$. Show that $2abc-ab-bc-ca$ is the largest integer which cannot be expressed in the form $xbc+yca+zab$, where $x,y,z$ are non-negative integers.

2014 India IMO Training Camp, 3

Tags: function , combinatorics , Additive combinatorics , Sequence , IMO Shortlist

Let $r$ be a positive integer, and let $a_0 , a_1 , \cdots $ be an infinite sequence of real numbers. Assume that for all nonnegative integers $m$ and $s$ there exists a positive integer $n \in [m+1, m+r]$ such that \[ a_m + a_{m+1} +\cdots +a_{m+s} = a_n + a_{n+1} +\cdots +a_{n+s} \] Prove that the sequence is periodic, i.e. there exists some $p \ge 1 $ such that $a_{n+p} =a_n $ for all $n \ge 0$.

Russian TST 2014, P2

Tags: induction , combinatorics , Additive combinatorics , partition , IMO Shortlist

Let $n$ be a positive integer, and let $A$ be a subset of $\{ 1,\cdots ,n\}$. An $A$-partition of $n$ into $k$ parts is a representation of n as a sum $n = a_1 + \cdots + a_k$, where the parts $a_1 , \cdots , a_k $ belong to $A$ and are not necessarily distinct. The number of different parts in such a partition is the number of (distinct) elements in the set $\{ a_1 , a_2 , \cdots , a_k \} $. We say that an $A$-partition of $n$ into $k$ parts is optimal if there is no $A$-partition of $n$ into $r$ parts with $r<k$. Prove that any optimal $A$-partition of $n$ contains at most $\sqrt[3]{6n}$ different parts.

1993 IMO Shortlist, 2

Tags: combinatorics , IMO Shortlist , Additive combinatorics , Additive Number Theory

Let $n,k \in \mathbb{Z}^{+}$ with $k \leq n$ and let $S$ be a set containing $n$ distinct real numbers. Let $T$ be a set of all real numbers of the form $x_1 + x_2 + \ldots + x_k$ where $x_1, x_2, \ldots, x_k$ are distinct elements of $S.$ Prove that $T$ contains at least $k(n-k)+1$ distinct elements.

2012 India IMO Training Camp, 3

Tags: arithmetic sequence , combinatorics , IMO Shortlist , Additive combinatorics

Determine the greatest positive integer $k$ that satisfies the following property: The set of positive integers can be partitioned into $k$ subsets $A_1, A_2, \ldots, A_k$ such that for all integers $n \geq 15$ and all $i \in \{1, 2, \ldots, k\}$ there exist two distinct elements of $A_i$ whose sum is $n.$ [i]Proposed by Igor Voronovich, Belarus[/i]

1990 IMO Longlists, 3

Tags: number theory , Additive combinatorics , Additive Number Theory , counting , IMO Shortlist

The integer $ 9$ can be written as a sum of two consecutive integers: $ 9 \equal{} 4\plus{}5.$ Moreover, it can be written as a sum of (more than one) consecutive positive integers in exactly two ways: $ 9 \equal{} 4\plus{}5 \equal{} 2\plus{}3\plus{}4.$ Is there an integer that can be written as a sum of $ 1990$ consecutive integers and that can be written as a sum of (more than one) consecutive positive integers in exactly $ 1990$ ways?

2016 Peru IMO TST, 7

Tags: IMO Shortlist , combinatorics , Additive combinatorics

Let $S$ be a nonempty set of positive integers. We say that a positive integer $n$ is [i]clean[/i] if it has a unique representation as a sum of an odd number of distinct elements from $S$. Prove that there exist infinitely many positive integers that are not clean.

2016 HMIC, 5

Tags: combinatorics , Additive combinatorics , HMIC , HMMT , arithmetic sequence , number theory

Let $S = \{a_1, \ldots, a_n \}$ be a finite set of positive integers of size $n \ge 1$, and let $T$ be the set of all positive integers that can be expressed as sums of perfect powers (including $1$) of distinct numbers in $S$, meaning \[ T = \left\{ \sum_{i=1}^n a_i^{e_i} \mid e_1, e_2, \dots, e_n \ge 0 \right\}. \] Show that there is a positive integer $N$ (only depending on $n$) such that $T$ contains no arithmetic progression of length $N$. [i]Yang Liu[/i]

2011 Israel National Olympiad, 1

Tags: combinatorics , Additive combinatorics

We are given 5771 weights weighing 1,2,3,...,5770,5771. We partition the weights into $n$ sets of equal weight. What is the maximal $n$ for which this is possible?

2014 Brazil Team Selection Test, 2

Tags: algorithm , combinatorics , Additive combinatorics , IMO Shortlist

Let $n$ be an positive integer. Find the smallest integer $k$ with the following property; Given any real numbers $a_1 , \cdots , a_d $ such that $a_1 + a_2 + \cdots + a_d = n$ and $0 \le a_i \le 1$ for $i=1,2,\cdots ,d$, it is possible to partition these numbers into $k$ groups (some of which may be empty) such that the sum of the numbers in each group is at most $1$.

1992 IMO Longlists, 60

Tags: number theory , Perfect Powers , Additive combinatorics , Additive Number Theory , IMO Shortlist , IMO Longlist

Does there exist a set $ M$ with the following properties? [i](i)[/i] The set $ M$ consists of 1992 natural numbers. [i](ii)[/i] Every element in $ M$ and the sum of any number of elements have the form $ m^k$ $ (m, k \in \mathbb{N}, k \geq 2).$