Solve the following system of equations, in which $a$ is a given number satisfying $|a| > 1$: $\begin{matrix} x_{1}^2 = ax_2 + 1 \\ x_{2}^2 = ax_3 + 1 \\ \ldots \\ x_{999}^2 = ax_{1000} + 1 \\ x_{1000}^2 = ax_1 + 1 \\ \end{matrix}$

Consider a $m\times n$ rectangular board consisting of $mn$ unit squares. Two of its unit squares are called [i]adjacent[/i] if they have a common edge, and a [i]path[/i] is a sequence of unit squares in which any two consecutive squares are adjacent. Two parths are called [i]non-intersecting[/i] if they don't share any common squares. Each unit square of the rectangular board can be colored black or white. We speak of a [i]coloring[/i] of the board if all its $mn$ unit squares are colored. Let $N$ be the number of colorings of the board such that there exists at least one black path from the left edge of the board to its right edge. Let $M$ be the number of colorings of the board for which there exist at least two non-intersecting black paths from the left edge of the board to its right edge. Prove that $N^{2}\geq M\cdot 2^{mn}$.

Consider a matrix whose entries are integers. Adding a same integer to all entries on a same row, or on a same column, is called an operation. It is given that, for infinitely many positive integers $n$, one can obtain, through a finite number of operations, a matrix having all entries divisible by $n$. Prove that, through a finite number of operations, one can obtain the null matrix.

Let $A$ be a square matrix of odd order (at least $3$) whose entries are odd integers. Prove that if $A$ is invertible, then it is not possible for all the minors of the entries of a row to have equal absolute values.

Let $G= \{ A \in \mathcal M_2 \left( \mathbb C \right) \mid |\det A| = 1 \}$ and $H =\{A \in \mathcal M_2 \left( \mathbb C \right) \mid \det A = 1 \}$. Prove that $G$ and $H$ together with the operation of matrix multiplication are two non-isomorphical groups.

For an arbitrary square matrix $M$, define $$\exp(M)=I+\frac M{1!}+\frac{M^2}{2!}+\frac{M^3}{3!}+\ldots.$$Construct $2\times2$ matrices $A$ and $B$ such that $\exp(A+B)\ne\exp(A)\exp(B)$.

The numbers, in order, of each row and the numbers, in order, of each column of a $5 \times 5$ array of integers form an arithmetic progression of length $5{.}$ The numbers in positions $(5, 5), \,(2,4),\,(4,3),$ and $(3, 1)$ are $0, 48, 16,$ and $12{,}$ respectively. What number is in position $(1, 2)?$ \[ \begin{bmatrix} . & ? &.&.&. \\ .&.&.&48&.\\ 12&.&.&.&.\\ .&.&16&.&.\\ .&.&.&.&0\end{bmatrix}\] $\textbf{(A) } 19 \qquad \textbf{(B) } 24 \qquad \textbf{(C) } 29 \qquad \textbf{(D) } 34 \qquad \textbf{(E) } 39$

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 $H$ be an $n\times n$ matrix all of whose entries are $\pm1$ and whose rows are mutually orthogonal. Suppose $H$ has an $a\times b$ submatrix whose entries are all $1.$ Show that $ab\le n.$

Given a matrix $\{a_{ij}\}_{i,j=0}^{9}$, $a_{ij}=10i+j+1$. Andrei is going to cover its entries by $50$ rectangles $1\times 2$ (each such rectangle contains two adjacent entries) so that the sum of $50$ products in these rectangles is minimal possible. Help him. [i]A. Badzyan[/i]

Let $A,B \in M_{n}(\mathbb{R}).$ Show that $rank(A) = rank(B)$ if and only if there exist nonsingular matrices $X,Y,Z \in M_{n}(\mathbb{R})$ such that \[ AX + YB = AZB. \]

Let $A\in\mathcal{M}_n(\mathbb{C})$ such that $A^*A^2 = AA^*$. Prove that $A^2=A$. (Here we denote by $A^*$ the conjugate transpose of $A$.)

Determine all complex numbers $\lambda$ for which there exists a positive integer $n$ and a real $n\times n$ matrix $A$ such that $A^2=A^T$ and $\lambda$ is an eigenvalue of $A$.

Let $G$ be an abelian group with $n$ elements, and let \[\{g_1=e,g_2,\dots,g_k\}\subsetneq G\] be a (not necessarily minimal) set of distinct generators of $G.$ A special die, which randomly selects one of the elements $g_1,g_2,\dots,g_k$ with equal probability, is rolled $m$ times and the selected elements are multiplied to produce an element $g\in G.$ Prove that there exists a real number $b\in(0,1)$ such that \[\lim_{m\to\infty}\frac1{b^{2m}}\sum_{x\in G}\left(\mathrm{Prob}(g=x)-\frac1n\right)^2\] is positive and finite.

Let $n$ and $k$ be positive integers, where $n > 1$ is odd. Suppose $n$ voters are to elect one of the $k$ cadidates from a set $A$ according to the rule of "majoritarian compromise" described below. After each voter ranks the candidates in a column according to his/her preferences, these columns are concatenated to form a $k$ x $n$ voting matrix. We denote the number of ccurences of $a \in A$ in the $i$-th row of the voting matrix by $a_{i}$ . Let $l_{a}$ stand for the minimum integer $l$ for which $\sum^{l}_{i=1}{a_{i}}> \frac{n}{2}$. Setting $l'= min \{l_{a} | a \in A\}$, we will regard the voting matrices which make the set $\{a \in A | l_{a} = l' \}$ as admissible. For each such matrix, the single candidate in this set will get elected according to majoritarian compromise. Moreover, if $w_{1} \geq w_{2} \geq ... \geq
w_{k} \geq 0$ are given, for each admissible voting matrix, $\sum^{k}_{i=1}{w_{i}a_{i}}$ is called the total weighted score of $a \in A$. We will say that the system $(w_{1},w_{2}, . . . , w_{k})$ of weights represents majoritarian compromise if the total score of the elected candidate is maximum among the scores of all candidates. (a) Determine whether there is a system of weights representing majoritarian compromise if $k = 3$. (b) Show that such a system of weights does not exist for $k > 3$.

Prove that if $A{}$ is an $n\times n$ matrix with complex entries such that $A+A^*=A^2A^*$ then $A=A^*$. (Here, we denote by $M^*$ the conjugate transpose $\overline{M}^t$ of the matrix $M{}$).

Let $N$ be a positive integer. Consider a $N \times N$ array of square unit cells. Two corner cells that lie on the same longest diagonal are colored black, and the rest of the array is white. A [i]move[/i] consists of choosing a row or a column and changing the color of every cell in the chosen row or column. What is the minimal number of additional cells that one has to color black such that, after a finite number of moves, a completely black board can be reached?

Solve the system of equations: $ \begin{matrix} x^2 + x - 1 = y \\ y^2 + y - 1 = z \\ z^2 + z - 1 = x. \end{matrix} $

Sequences $(x_n)_{n\ge1}$, $(y_n)_{n\ge1}$ satisfy the relations $x_n=4x_{n-1}+3y_{n-1}$ and $y_n=2x_{n-1}+3y_{n-1}$ for $n\ge1$. If $x_1=y_1=5$ find $x_n$ and $y_n$. Calculate $\lim_{n\rightarrow\infty}\frac{x_n}{y_n}$.

In the following $6\times 6$ matrix, one can choose any $k\times k$ submatrix, with $1<k\leq6 $ and add $1$ to all its entries. Is it possible to perform the operation a finite number of times so that all the entries in the $6\times 6$ matrix are multiples of $3$? $ \begin{pmatrix} 2 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 & 2 & 0 & 1 & 2 & 0 \\ 1 & 0 & 2 & 0 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 & 0 & 2 & 2 & 0 \\ 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 2 & 0 \\ 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \end{pmatrix} $ Note: A $p\times q$ submatrix of a $m\times n$ matrix (with $p\leq m$, $q\leq n$) is a $p\times q$ matrix formed by taking a block of the entries of this size from the original matrix.

Let $ n(\ge2) $ be a positive integer. Find the minimum $ m $, so that there exists $x_{ij}(1\le i ,j\le n)$ satisfying: (1)For every $1\le i ,j\le n, x_{ij}=max\{x_{i1},x_{i2},...,x_{ij}\} $ or $ x_{ij}=max\{x_{1j},x_{2j},...,x_{ij}\}.$ (2)For every $1\le i \le n$, there are at most $m$ indices $k$ with $x_{ik}=max\{x_{i1},x_{i2},...,x_{ik}\}.$ (3)For every $1\le j \le n$, there are at most $m$ indices $k$ with $x_{kj}=max\{x_{1j},x_{2j},...,x_{kj}\}.$

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 $G$ be the set of $2\times 2$ matrices that such $$ G = \left\{ \begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} \mid\, a,b,c,d \in \mathbb{Z}, ad-bc = 1, c \text{ is a multiple of } 3 \right\} $$ and two matrices in $G$: $$ A = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 1 \\ 0 & 1 \end{pmatrix}\;\;\; B = \begin{pmatrix} -1 & 1 \\ -3 & 2 \end{pmatrix} $$ Show that any matrix in $G$ can be written as a product $M_1M_2\cdots M_r$ such that $M_i \in \{A, A^{-1}, B, B^{-1}\}, \forall i \leq r$

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

Do either (1) or (2): (1) Prove that the determinant of the matrix $$\begin{pmatrix} 1+a^2 -b^2 -c^2 & 2(ab+c) & 2(ac-b)\\ 2(ab-c) & 1-a^2 +b^2 -c^2 & 2(bc+a)\\ 2(ac+b)& 2(bc-a) & 1-a^2 -b^2 +c^2 \end{pmatrix}$$ is given by $(1+a^2 +b^2 +c^2)^{3}$. (2) A solid is formed by rotating the first quadrant of the ellipse $\frac{x^{2}}{a^{2}}+\frac{y^{2}}{b^{2}}=1$ around the $x$-axis. Prove that this solid can rest in stable equilibrium on its vertex if and only if $\frac{a}{b}\leq \sqrt{\frac{8}{5}}$.