Let $ A\in M_2\left( \mathbb{R}\right) $ be a matrix having (strictly) positive numbers as its elements. Show that there is no natural number $ n $ such that $ A^n=I_2. $

Let $A$ be the $n\times n$ matrix whose entry in the $i$-th row and $j$-th column is \[\frac1{\min(i,j)}\] for $1\le i,j\le n.$ Compute $\det(A).$

Let $P_i (x_i, y_i)$ (with $i = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5$) be five points with integer coordinates, no three collinear. Show that among all triangles with vertices at these points, at least three have integer areas.

For which positive integers $n$ does there exist an $n \times n$ matrix $A$ whose entries are all in $\{0,1\}$, such that $A^2$ is the matrix of all ones?

At the vertices $A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H$ of a cube, $2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2007$ and $2006$ stones respectively are placed. It is allowed to move a stone from a vertex to each of its three neighbours, or to move a stone to a vertex from each of its three neighbours. Which of the following arrangements of stones at $A, B, \ldots , H$ can be obtained? $(\text{a})\quad 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2005;$ $(\text{b})\quad 2002, 2003, 2004, 2001, 2006, 2005, 2008, 2007;$ $(\text{c})\quad 2004, 2002, 2003, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2007, 2006.$

Given A, non-inverted matrices of order n with real elements, $n\ge 2$ and given ${{A}^{*}}$adjoin matrix A. Prove that $tr({{A}^{*}})\ne -1$ if and only if the matrix ${{I}_{n}}+{{A}^{*}}$ is invertible.

Let $n,k$ be positive integers such that $n\ge k$. $n$ lamps are placed on a circle, which are all off. In any step we can change the state of $k$ consecutive lamps. In the following three cases, how many states of lamps are there in all $2^n$ possible states that can be obtained from the initial state by a certain series of operations? i)$k$ is a prime number greater than $2$; ii) $k$ is odd; iii) $k$ is even.

Let $n$ be an even positive integer. We say that two different cells of a $n \times n$ board are [b]neighboring[/b] if they have a common side. Find the minimal number of cells on the $n \times n$ board that must be marked so that any cell (marked or not marked) has a marked neighboring cell.

For matrices $A=[a_{ij}]_{m \times m}$ and $B=[b_{ij}]_{m \times m}$ where $A,B \in \mathbb{Z} ^{m \times m}$ let $A \equiv B \pmod{n}$ only if $a_{ij} \equiv b_{ij} \pmod{n}$ for every $i,j \in \{ 1,2,...,m \}$, that's $A-B=nZ$ for some $Z \in \mathbb{Z}^{m \times m}$. (The symbol $A \in \mathbb{Z} ^{m \times m}$ means that every element in $A$ is an integer.) Prove that for $A \in \mathbb{Z} ^{m \times m}$ there is $B \in \mathbb{Z} ^{m \times m}$ , where $AB \equiv I \pmod{n }$ only if $(\det (A),n)=1$ and find the value of $B$ in the form of $A$ where $I$ represents the dimensional identity matrix $m \times m$. [i](PP-nine)[/i]

Let $n$ be a positive integer, and let $M_n$ be the set of invertible matrices with integer entries and size $n \times n$. (a) Find the largest possible value of $n$ such that there exists a symmetric matrix $A \in M_n$ satisfying \[ \det(A^{20} + A^{24}) < 2024. \] (b) Prove that for every $n$, there exists a matrix $B \in M_n$ such that \[ \det(B^{20} + B^{24}) < 2024. \]

Given $5n$ real numbers $r_i, s_i, t_i, u_i, v_i \geq 1 (1 \leq i \leq n)$, let $R = \frac {1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} r_i$, $S = \frac {1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} s_i$, $T = \frac {1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} t_i$, $U = \frac {1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} u_i$, $V = \frac {1}{n} \sum_{i=1}^{n} v_i$. Prove that $\prod_{i=1}^{n}\frac {r_i s_i t_i u_i v_i + 1}{r_i s_i t_i u_i v_i - 1} \geq \left(\frac {RSTUV +1}{RSTUV - 1}\right)^n$.

$p=3k+1$ is a prime number. For each $m \in \mathbb Z_p$, define function $L$ as follow: $L(m) = \sum_{x \in \mathbb{Z}_p}^{ } \left ( \frac{x(x^3 + m)}{p} \right )$ [i]a)[/i] For every $m \in \mathbb Z_p$ and $t \in {\mathbb Z_p}^{*}$ prove that $L(m) = L(mt^3)$. (5 points) [i]b)[/i] Prove that there is a partition of ${\mathbb Z_p}^{*} = A \cup B \cup C$ such that $|A| = |B| = |C| = \frac{p-1}{3}$ and $L$ on each set is constant. Equivalently there are $a,b,c$ for which $L(x) = \left\{\begin{matrix} a & & &x \in A \\ b& & &x \in B \\ c& & & x \in C \end{matrix}\right.$ . (7 points) [i]c)[/i] Prove that $a+b+c = -3$. (4 points) [i]d)[/i] Prove that $a^2 + b^2 + c^2 = 6p+3$. (12 points) [i]e)[/i] Let $X= \frac{2a+b+3}{3},Y= \frac{b-a}{3}$, show that $X,Y \in \mathbb Z$ and also show that :$p= X^2 + XY +Y^2$. (2 points) (${\mathbb Z_p}^{*} = \mathbb Z_p \setminus \{0\}$)

Let be a $ 2\times 2 $ real matrix $ A $ whose primary diagonal has positive elements and whose secondary diagonal has negative elements. If $ \det A>0, $ show that [b]a)[/b] for any $ 2\times 2 $ matrix $ X $ of positive real numbers there exists a $ 2\times 2 $ matrix of positive real numbers such that $ AY=X. $ [b]b)[/b] there is a $ 2\times 2 $ matrix $ Z $ of positive real numbers having the property that all elements of $ AZ $ are positive. [i]Vasile Pop[/i]

Let $n$ be a positive integer. Find the smallest positive integer $k$ with the property that for any colouring nof the squares of a $2n$ by $k$ chessboard with $n$ colours, there are $2$ columns and $2$ rows such that the $4$ squares in their intersections have the same colour.

Start with a finite sequence $ a_1,a_2,\dots,a_n$ of positive integers. If possible, choose two indices $ j < k$ such that $ a_j$ does not divide $ a_k$ and replace $ a_j$ and $ a_k$ by $ \gcd(a_j,a_k)$ and $ \text{lcm}\,(a_j,a_k),$ respectively. Prove that if this process is repeated, it must eventually stop and the final sequence does not depend on the choices made. (Note: $ \gcd$ means greatest common divisor and lcm means least common multiple.)

Let $1,2,3,\dots,2005,2006,2007,2009,2012,2016,\dots$ be a sequence defined by $x_{k}=k$ for $k=1,2\dots,2006$ and $x_{k+1}=x_{k}+x_{k-2005}$ for $k\ge 2006.$ Show that the sequence has 2005 consecutive terms each divisible by 2006.

Calculate the determinant of the $ n\times n $ complex matrix $ \left(a_j^i\right)_{1\le j\le n}^{1\le i\le n} $ defined by $$ a_j^i=\left\{\begin{matrix} 1+x^2,\quad i=j\\x,\quad |i-j|=1\\0,\quad |i-j|\ge 2\end{matrix}\right. , $$ where $ n $ is a natural number greater than $ 2. $

[b]Problem 1. [/b]In the cells of square table are written the numbers $1$, $0$ or $-1$ so that in every line there is exactly one $1$, amd exactly one $-1$. Each turn we change the places of two columns or two rows. Is it possible, from any such table, after finite number of turns to obtain its opposite table (two tables are opposite if the sum of the numbers written in any two corresponding squares is zero)? [i] Emil Kolev[/i]

$33$ horsemen are riding in the same direction along a circular road. Their speeds are constant and pairwise distinct. There is a single point on the road where the horsemen can surpass one another. Can they ride in this fashion for arbitrarily long time ?

Denote by $ H_n$ the linear space of $ n\times n$ self-adjoint complex matrices, and by $ P_n$ the cone of positive-semidefinite matrices in this space. Let us consider the usual inner product on $ H_n$ \[ \langle A,B\rangle \equal{} {\rm tr} AB\qquad (A,B\in H_n)\] and its derived metric. Show that every $ \phi: P_n\to P_n$ isometry (that is a not necessarily surjective, distance preserving map with respect to the above metric) can be expressed as \[ \phi(A) \equal{} UAU^* \plus{} X\qquad (A\in H_n)\] or \[ \phi(A) \equal{} UA^TU^* \plus{} X\qquad (A\in H_n)\] where $ U$ is an $ n\times n$ unitary matrix, $ X$ is a positive-semidefinite matrix, and $ ^T$ and $ ^*$ denote taking the transpose and the adjoint, respectively.

Some $n>2$ lamps are cyclically connected: lamp $1$ with lamp $2$, ..., lamp $k$ with lamp $k+1$,..., lamp $n-1$ with lamp $n$, lamp $n$ with lamp $1$. At the beginning all lamps are off. When one pushes the switch of a lamp, that lamp and the two ones connected to it change status (from off to on, or vice versa). Determine the number of configurations of lamps reachable from the initial one, through some set of switches being pushed.

Find all triplets of matrices $A,B,C\in\mathcal{M}_2(\mathbb{R})$ which satisfy \begin{align*} A=BC-CB \\ B=CA-AC \\ C=AB-BA \end{align*} [i]Proposed by David Anghel[/i]

Given $ k \in [0,1,2,3]$ and a positive integer $ n$, let $ f_k(n)$ be the number of sequences $ x_1,...,x_n,$ where $ x_i \in [\minus{}1,0,1]$ for $ i\equal{}1,...,n,$ and $ x_1\plus{}...\plus{}x_n \equiv k$ mod 4 a) Prove that $ f_1(n) \equal{} f_3(n)$ for all positive integers $ n$. (b) Prove that $ f_0(n) \equal{} [{3^n \plus{} 2 \plus{} [\minus{}1]^n}] / 4$ for all positive integers $ n$.

Let $ a$ be a fixed integer. Find all integer solutions $ x,y,z$ of the system: $ 5x\plus{}(a\plus{}2)y\plus{}(a\plus{}2)z\equal{}a,$ $ (2a\plus{}4)x\plus{}(a^2\plus{}3)y\plus{}(2a\plus{}2)z\equal{}3a\minus{}1,$ $ (2a\plus{}4)x\plus{}(2a\plus{}2)y\plus{}(a^2\plus{}3)z\equal{}a\plus{}1.$

Determine the number of $n$-tuples of integers $(x_1,x_2,\cdots ,x_n)$ such that $|x_i| \le 10$ for each $1\le i \le n$ and $|x_i-x_j| \le 10$ for $1 \le i,j \le n$.