This website contains problems from math contests. Problems and corresponding tags were obtained from the Art of Problem Solving website.

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Found problems: 638

Consider the matrices $A\in \mathcal{M}_{m,n}(\mathbb{C})$ and $B\in \mathcal{M}_{n,m}(\mathbb{C})$ with $n\le m$. It is given that $\text{rank}(AB)=n$ and $(AB)^2=AB$. a)Prove that $(BA)^3=(BA)^2$. b)Find $BA$.
Suppose that each of $n$ people writes down the numbers $1, 2, 3$ in random order in one column of a $3\times n$ matrix, with all orders equally likely and with the orders for different columns independent of each other. Let the row sums $a, b, c$ of the resulting matrix be rearranged (if necessary) so that $a \le b \le c$. Show that for some $n \ge 1995$ ,it is at least four times as likely that both $b = a+1$ and $c = a+2$ as that $a = b = c$.
On a chess table $n\times m$ we call a [i]move [/i] the following succesion of operations (i) choosing some unmarked squares, any two not lying on the same row or column; (ii) marking them with 1; (iii) marking with 0 all the unmarked squares which lie on the same line and column with a square marked with the number 1 (even if the square has been marked with 1 on another move). We call a [i]game [/i]a succession of moves that end in the moment that we cannot make any more moves. What is the maximum possible sum of the numbers on the table at the end of a game?
Let be three complex numbers $ \alpha ,\beta ,\gamma $ such that $$ \begin{vmatrix} \left( \alpha -\beta \right)^2 & \left( \alpha -\beta \right)\left( \beta -\gamma \right) & \left( \beta -\gamma \right)^2 \\ \left( \beta -\gamma \right)^2 & \left( \beta -\gamma \right)\left( \gamma -\alpha \right) & \left( \gamma -\alpha \right)^2 \\ \left( \gamma -\alpha \right)^2 & \left( \gamma -\alpha \right)\left( \alpha -\beta \right) & \left( \alpha -\beta \right)^2\end{vmatrix} =0. $$ Prove that $ \alpha ,\beta ,\gamma $ are all equal, or their affixes represent a non-degenerate equilateral triangle. [i]Gheorghe Necșuleu[/i] and [i]Ion Necșuleu[/i]
Let $x>0$ be a real number and $A$ a square $2\times 2$ matrix with real entries such that $\det {(A^2+xI_2 )} = 0$. Prove that $\det{ (A^2+A+xI_2) } = x$.
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]
Investigate the convergence of the integral \[\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\frac{dxdy}{1+x^4y^4}\]
Prove that every polynomial of fourth degree can be represented in the form $P(Q(x))+R(S(x))$, where $P,Q,R,S$ are quadratic trinomials. [i]A. Golovanov[/i] [b]EDIT.[/b] It is confirmed that assuming the coefficients to be [b]real[/b], while solving the problem, earned a maximum score.
Let $A,B\in\mathcal{M}_{2}(\mathbb{R})$ (real $2\times 2$ matrices), that satisfy $A^{2}+B^{2}=AB$. Prove that $(AB-BA)^{2}=O_{2}$.
Let $p$ be a prime number. For any $\sigma \in S_p$ (the permutation group of $\{1,2,...,p \}),$ define the matrix $A_{\sigma}=(a_{ij}) \in \mathcal{M}_p(\mathbb{Z})$ as $a_{ij} = \sigma^{i-1}(j),$ where $\sigma^0$ is the identity permutation and $\sigma^k = \underbrace{\sigma \circ \sigma \circ ... \circ \sigma}_k.$ Prove that $D = \{ |\det A_{\sigma}| : \sigma \in S_p \}$ has at most $1+ (p-2)!$ elements.
Without calculating the value of the determinant $$ \begin{vmatrix}1 &1 &3& 1\\1& 2& 3 &5\\ 3& 0& 5& 5\\ 0& a& -11a& a^{13}+9a\end{vmatrix} , $$ show that it is divisible by $ 26, $ for any integer $ a. $
Let $A\in M_n(\mathbb{C}) $ and $a\in \mathbb{C} $ such that $A-A^*=2aI_n $, where $A^*=(\overline{A})^T $ and $I_n$ is identity matrix. (i) Show that $|\det A|\ge |a|^n $. (ii) Show that if $|\det A|=|a|^n $ then $A=aI_n$.
Let $A=(a_{ij})$ be an $m\times n$ real matrix with at least one non-zero element. For each $i\in\{1,\ldots,m\}$, let $R_i=\sum_{j=1}^na_{ij}$ be the sum of the $i$-th row of the matrix $A$, and for each $j\in\{1,\ldots,n\}$, let $C_j =\sum_{i=1}^ma_{ij}$ be the sum of the $j$-th column of the matrix $A$. Prove that there exist indices $k\in\{1,\ldots,m\}$ and $l\in\{1,\ldots,n\}$ such that $$a_{kl}>0,\qquad R_k\ge0,\qquad C_l\ge0,$$or $$a_{kl}<0,\qquad R_k\le0,\qquad C_l\le0.$$
Given a square matrix $M$ of order $n$ over the field of numbers real, find, as a function of $M$, two matrices, one symmetric and one antisymmetric, such that their sum is precisely $ M$.
Let $A$ be an $n\times n$ square matrix with integer entries. Suppose that $p^2A^{p^2}=q^2A^{q^2}+r^2I_n$ for some positive integers $p,q,r$ where $r$ is odd and $p^2=q^2+r^2$. Prove that $|\det A|=1$. (Here $I_n$ means the $n\times n$ identity matrix.)
For $n \geq 3$ and $a_{1} \leq a_{2} \leq \ldots \leq a_{n}$ given real numbers we have the following instructions: - place out the numbers in some order in a ring; - delete one of the numbers from the ring; - if just two numbers are remaining in the ring: let $S$ be the sum of these two numbers. Otherwise, if there are more the two numbers in the ring, replace Afterwards start again with the step (2). Show that the largest sum $S$ which can result in this way is given by the formula \[S_{max}= \sum^n_{k=2} \begin{pmatrix} n -2 \\ [\frac{k}{2}] - 1\end{pmatrix}a_{k}.\]
Let $A, B \in M_6 (\mathbb{Z} )$ such that $A \equiv I \equiv B \text{ mod }3$ and $A^3 B^3 A^3 = B^3$. Prove that $A = I$. Here $M_6 (\mathbb{Z} )$ indicates the $6$ by $6$ matrices with integer entries, $I$ is the identity matrix, and $X \equiv Y \text{ mod }3$ means all entries of $X-Y$ are divisible by $3$.
Find the lengths of the principal axes of the ellipsoid \[\sum_{i\le j}x_i x_j=1\]
A cake has the form of an $ n$ x $ n$ square composed of $ n^{2}$ unit squares. Strawberries lie on some of the unit squares so that each row or column contains exactly one strawberry; call this arrangement $\mathcal{A}$. Let $\mathcal{B}$ be another such arrangement. Suppose that every grid rectangle with one vertex at the top left corner of the cake contains no fewer strawberries of arrangement $\mathcal{B}$ than of arrangement $\mathcal{A}$. Prove that arrangement $\mathcal{B}$ can be obtained from $ \mathcal{A}$ by performing a number of switches, defined as follows: A switch consists in selecting a grid rectangle with only two strawberries, situated at its top right corner and bottom left corner, and moving these two strawberries to the other two corners of that rectangle.
Let $A=(\alpha_{ij})$ be a $m\,x\,n$ matric and $B=(\beta_{kl})$ be a $n\,x\, m$ matric with $m>n$ . Prove that $D(A\cdot B)=0$.
Solve the system of equations: $ \begin{matrix} |x+y| + |1-x| = 6 \\ |x+y+1| + |1-y| = 4. \end{matrix} $
An $n\times n$ matrix $A$ with integer entries is called [i]representative[/i] if, for any integer vector $\mathbf{v}$, there is a finite sequence $0=\mathbf{v}_0,\mathbf{v}_1,\dots,\mathbf{v}_{\ell}=\mathbf{v}$ of integer vectors such that for each $0\leq i <\ell$, either $\mathbf{v}_{i+1}=A\mathbf{v}_{i}$ or $\mathbf{v}_{i+1}-\mathbf{v}_i$ is an element of the standard basis (i.e. one of its entries is $1$, the rest are all equal to $0$). Show that $A$ is not representative if and only if $A^T$ has a real eigenvector with all non-negative entries and non-negative eigenvalue.
Let $M,N\in M_2(\mathbb C)$ be two nonzero matrices such that $$M^2=N^2=0_2\text{ and }MN+NM=I_2$$where $0_2$ is the $2\times2$ zero matrix and $I_2$ the $2\times2$ unit matrix. Prove that there is an invertible matrix $A\in M_2(\mathbb C)$ such that $$M=A\begin{pmatrix}0&1\\0&0\end{pmatrix}A^{-1}\text{ and }N=A\begin{pmatrix}0&0\\1&0\end{pmatrix}A^{-1}.$$
Let $n \geq 2$ and $A, B \in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})$ such that there exists an idempotent matrix $C \in \mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})$ for which $C^*=AB-BA.$ Prove that $(AB-BA)^2=0.$ Note: $X^*$ is the [url = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adjugate_matrix]adjugate[/url] matrix of $X$ (not the conjugate transpose)
Calculate $ \begin{pmatrix}1&0&0& \ldots &0\\\binom{1}{0} &\binom{1}{1} &0& \ldots & 0 \\ \ldots & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots \\ \binom{n}{0} &\binom{n}{1} & \binom{n}{2} & \ldots & \binom{n}{n}\end{pmatrix}^{-1} . $