Here is a problem we (me and my colleagues) suggested and was given at the competition this year. The problem statement is very natural and short. However, we have not seen such a problem before. A real $2024 \times 2024$ matrix $A$ is called nice if $(Av, v) = 1$ for every vector $v\in \mathbb{R}^{2024}$ with unit norm. a) Prove that the only nice matrix such that all of its eigenvalues are real is the identity matrix. b) Find an example of a nice non-identity matrix

Original in Hungarian; translated with Google translate; polished by myself. Let $n$ be a positive integer. Suppose that the sum of the matrices $A_1, \dots, A_n\in \Bbb R^{n\times n}$ is the identity matrix, but $\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n\alpha_i A_i$ is singular whenever at least one of the coefficients $\alpha_i \in \Bbb R$ is zero. a) Show that $\sum\nolimits_{i = 1}^n\alpha_i A_i$ is nonsingular if $\alpha_i\neq 0$ for all $i$. b) Show that if the matrices $A_i$ are symmetric, then all of them have rank $1$.

Let $A, B, X$ be real $n\times n$ matrices for which $AXB + A + B = 0$ holds. Prove that $AXB = BXA$.

We say that the rank of a group $ G$ is at most $ r$ if every subgroup of $ G$ can be generated by at most $ r$ elements. Prove that here exists an integer $ s$ such that for every finite group $ G$ of rank $ 2$ the commutator series of $ G$ has length less than $ s$. [i]J. Erdos[/i]

Prove that the elements of any natural power of a $ 2\times 2 $ special linear integer matrix are pairwise coprime, with the possible exception of the pairs that form the diagonals. [i]Vasile Pop[/i]

Let $x_1,\cdots, x_n$ be nonzero vectors of a vector space $V$ and $\varphi:V\to V$ be a linear transformation such that $\varphi x_1 = x_1$, $\varphi x_k = x_k - x_{k-1}$ for $k = 2, 3,\ldots,n$. Prove that the vectors $x_1,\ldots,x_n$ are linearly independent.

Justify your answer whether $A=\left( \begin{array}{ccc} -4 & -1& -1 \\ 1 & -2& 1 \\ 0 & 0& -3 \end{array} \right)$ is similar to $B=\left( \begin{array}{ccc} -2 & 1& 0 \\ -1 & -4& 1 \\ 0 & 0& -3 \end{array} \right),\ A,\ B\in{M(\mathbb{C})}$ or not.

Find the lengths of the principal axes of the ellipsoid \[\sum_{i\le j}x_i x_j=1\]

Let $n\in\mathbb{N}$, $n\geq 2$. Find all values of $k\in\mathbb{N}$, $k\geq 1$, for which the following statement holds: $$\text{"If }A\in\mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})\text{ is such that }A^kA^*=A\text{, then }A=A^*\text{."}$$ (here, $A^*$ denotes the conjugate transpose of $A$).

Let $A$ be a symmetric $m\times m$ matrix over the two-element field all of whose diagonal entries are zero. Prove that for every positive integer $n$ each column of the matrix $A^n$ has a zero entry.

We consider the following system with $q=2p$: \[\begin{matrix} a_{11}x_{1}+\ldots+a_{1q}x_{q}=0,\\ a_{21}x_{1}+\ldots+a_{2q}x_{q}=0,\\ \ldots ,\\ a_{p1}x_{1}+\ldots+a_{pq}x_{q}=0,\\ \end{matrix}\] in which every coefficient is an element from the set $\{-1,0,1\}$$.$ Prove that there exists a solution $x_{1}, \ldots,x_{q}$ for the system with the properties: [b]a.)[/b] all $x_{j}, j=1,\ldots,q$ are integers$;$ [b]b.)[/b] there exists at least one j for which $x_{j} \neq 0;$ [b]c.)[/b] $|x_{j}| \leq q$ for any $j=1, \ldots ,q.$

Let $a,b,c$ be 3 integers, $b$ odd, and define the sequence $\{x_n\}_{n\geq 0}$ by $x_0=4$, $x_1=0$, $x_2=2c$, $x_3=3b$ and for all positive integers $n$ we have \[ x_{n+3} = ax_{n-1}+bx_n + cx_{n+1} . \] Prove that for all positive integers $m$, and for all primes $p$ the number $x_{p^m}$ is divisible by $p$.

Let $ A \equal{} (a_{ik})$ be an $ n\times n$ matrix with nonnegative elements such that $ \sum_{k \equal{} 1}^n a_{ik} \equal{} 1$ for $ i \equal{} 1,...,n$. Show that, for every eigenvalue $ \lambda$ of $ A$, either $ |\lambda| < 1$ or there exists a positive integer $ k$ such that $ \lambda^k \equal{} 1$

$33$ 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 ?

Let $A,B\in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{R})$. Prove that $\text{rank}\ A+\text{rank}\ B\le n$ if and only if there exists an invertible matrix $X\in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{R})$ such that $AXB=O_n$.

Let $\mathbb{F}_p$ denote the field of integers modulo a prime $p,$ and let $n$ be a positive integer. Let $v$ be a fixed vector in $\mathbb{F}_p^n,$ let $M$ be an $n\times n$ matrix with entries in $\mathbb{F}_p,$ and define $G:\mathbb{F}_p^n\to \mathbb{F}_p^n$ by $G(x)=v+Mx.$ Let $G^{(k)}$ denote the $k$-fold composition of $G$ with itself, that is, $G^{(1)}(x)=G(x)$ and $G^{(k+1)}(x)=G(G^{(k)}(x)).$ Determine all pairs $p,n$ for which there exist $v$ and $M$ such that the $p^n$ vectors $G^{(k)}(0),$ $k=1,2,\dots,p^n$ are distinct.

a) Show that $\forall n \in \mathbb{N}_0, \exists A \in \mathbb{R}^{n\times n}: A^3=A+I$. b) Show that $\det(A)>0, \forall A$ fulfilling the above condition.

Let $n$ be a positive integer and let $A$, $B$ be two complex nonsingular $n \times n$ matrices such that \[A^2B-2ABA+BA^2=0.\] Prove that the matrix $AB^{-1}A^{-1}B-I_n$ is nilpotent.

Let $\{k_1, k_2, \dots , k_m\}$ a set of $m$ integers. Show that there exists a matrix $m \times m$ with integers entries $A$ such that each of the matrices $A + k_jI, 1 \leq j \leq m$ are invertible and their entries have integer entries (here $I$ denotes the identity matrix).

Let $ A \equal{} (a_{ij})$, where $ i,j \equal{} 1,2,\ldots,n$, be a square matrix with all $ a_{ij}$ non-negative integers. For each $ i,j$ such that $ a_{ij} \equal{} 0$, the sum of the elements in the $ i$th row and the $ j$th column is at least $ n$. Prove that the sum of all the elements in the matrix is at least $ \frac {n^2}{2}$.

Given a natural number $ n\ge 2 $ and an $ n\times n $ matrix with integer entries, consider the multiplicative monoid $$ M=\{ M_k=I+kA| k\in \mathbb{Z} \} . $$ [b]a)[/b] Prove that $ M $ is a commutative group if the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilpotent_matrix]index[/url] of $ A $ is $ 2. $ [b]b)[/b] Prove that all elements of $ M $ are units if $ M_1,M_2,\ldots M_{2n} $ are all units.

The following figure shows a [i]walk[/i] of length 6: [asy] unitsize(20); for (int x = -5; x <= 5; ++x) for (int y = 0; y <= 5; ++y) dot((x, y)); label("$O$", (0, 0), S); draw((0, 0) -- (1, 0) -- (1, 1) -- (0, 1) -- (-1, 1) -- (-1, 2) -- (-1, 3)); [/asy] This walk has three interesting properties: [list] [*] It starts at the origin, labelled $O$. [*] Each step is 1 unit north, east, or west. There are no south steps. [*] The walk never comes back to a point it has been to.[/list] Let's call a walk with these three properties a [i]northern walk[/i]. There are 3 northern walks of length 1 and 7 northern walks of length 2. How many northern walks of length 6 are there?

Let be a natural number $ n\ge 2 $ and three $ n\times n $ complex matrices that have the properties that they commute pairwise, their sum is thrice the identity matrix, and their squares are the identity matrix. Prove that these three matrices are equal. [i]Marius Cavachi[/i]

Let $A=(a_{ij})$ and $B=(b_{ij})$ be two real $10\times10$ matrices such that $a_{ij}=b_{ij}+1$ for all $i,j$ and $A^3=0$. Prove that $\det B=0$.

Let $n$ be an integer with $n \geq 2$ and let $A \in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})$ such that $\operatorname{rank} A \neq \operatorname{rank} A^2.$ Prove that there exists a nonzero matrix $B \in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})$ such that $$AB=BA=B^2=0$$ [i]Cornel Delasava[/i]