Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
IMOTC 2019
Sutanay Bhattacharya
2
Introduction
0.2 Prerequisites
It would be rather ironic if a prerquisites’ book required prerequisites to begin
with, so I have decided to start from ground zero. Of course, as ancient wisdom
sayeth, you can’t just start reading a book with absolutely zero pre-knowledge;
so keep in mind the following:
1. You are gonna need some basic set theory notations. In case you are rusty
with them, just look them up on Wikipedia or something.
2. You should know how mathematical proofs works, and be able to follow
logical chains of reasoning.
i
ii
whenever applicable. The treatment of the topics are nowhere near comprehen-
sive; it is highly encouraged that you read up them from external sources on
your own. In addition, I’ve included quite a few problems with varying diffi-
culty. Try as many of them as you feel like, but don’t get discouraged if you
happen to get stuck; many of them are hard by any standards.
f (x) = an xn + · · · + a1 x + a0
For reals, these two viewpoints are one and the same, so for the rest of this
note, we won’t worry about the fine distinction between these. But that is not
the case for exotic number systems, say the field1 of integers modulo some prime
p. Clearly x and xp are same as functions, but they are different polynomials
1 Informally speaking, a “system” of number where we can add, multiply, subtarct and
divide by non-zero elements is called a field. Reals form a field, but there are lots of others.
If you ever hear a mathematician is working in a “field”, it’s probably one of those and not
actual fieldwork with practical applications, because pfft, who wants to do that. Same goes
for a mathematician working in a group.
1
2CHAPTER 1. FANTASTIC POLYNOMIALS AND HOW TO INTERPOLATE THEM
1. The integer n is called the degree of f . The degree of the zero polynomials
is usually left undefined or defined to be −∞, whatever that is.
Fact 1.2.1. Given any polynomial A and any non-zero polynomial B, there exist
unique polynomials Q, R so that A = BQ + R and R = 0 or deg R < deg B. If
R = 0, B is called a factor of A.
Fact 1.2.2. (Bézout for polynomials) For any two real polynomial f, g with
GCD h, there exist polynomials x, y so that xf + yf = h.
The above facts have been phrased in terms of reals, but they hold for ra-
tional polynomials as well.
The fact that in Euclidean division algorithm, the degree of R is always less
than B means that if B is a one-degree polynomial, R has to be a constant
polynomial. This simple observation gives rise to the following:
2A polynomial that can’t be factored into smaller degree polynomials.
3 We will see later that for reals, these irreducible factors have degree at most 2.
1.2. DIVIDE AND CONQUER 3
If P has root c, then P (x) = (x − c)Q(x) for some polynomial Q with degree
less than P (unless P = 0). Again, if Q has a root c1 , then Q(x) = (x − c1 )R(x)
for some even smaller R. This can’t go on forv er since at each step, the degree
reduces by 1, which leads to the following:
All this while, we have considering only real numbers, but there’s nothing
stopping us from considering polynomials in complex numbers too. In fact if we
do, we can say something much stronger:
with n1 + · · · nk = deg f .
This result might seem like a trivial generalisation of the previous fact, but
is surprisingly profound; in fact, profound enough to warrant the name Fun-
ndamental Theorem of Algebra. The proof is way beyond the scope of this
puny volume, so we will not attempt that.
So we saw that a real polynomial can easily have complex roots. But as
it turns out, the fact that those complex fcator mulitply out to produce some-
thing real introduces some rather stringent conditions on the roots themselves.
Specifically, the roots must occur in conjugate pairs:
Fact 1.2.7. If f is real polynomial with a complex root z, then z is also a root
of f .
(Hint for proof: Show in geneal that f (z) = f (z)) Using this, we can get a
better picture of how real polynomial factors over reals:
an xn + · · · a1 x + a0 = k(x − r1 ) · · · (x − rn ).
If we multiply out the right hand side and compare the coefficients, we will
arrive at the following:
4CHAPTER 1. FANTASTIC POLYNOMIALS AND HOW TO INTERPOLATE THEM
In keeping with the theme of relating coefficients to roots, here’s one more
useful result. Although it is technically more of a number theory result then
algebra, it’s included here.
Fact 1.2.10. If a rational number p/q with (p, q) = 1 is a root of the integer
polynomial an xn + · · · + a0 , then p|a0 , q|an .
1.3 Interpolation
Given any polynomial, we can easily evaluate it at any point as we wish to. But
how about the other way round? Say we are given the values of a polynomial at
a bunch of points, can we reconstruct the polynomial? One natural question to
ask is how many data points we need to get back, say, some n degree polynomial.
It is easy to see that n+1 data points are enough; if two n degree polynomials
match up in n + 1 points, their difference has n + 1 roots and thus has to be
zero. On the other hand, n data points is too few; if the points are x1 , · · · , xn
and p is any n degree polynomial that fits the given data, then so does k(x −
x1 ) · · · (x − xn ) + p for any k.
But how do we actually go about finding the said polynomial? The task is so
complicated and delicate that we often need helps from internation organisations
such as Interpol, which is why the process is dubbed interpolation. The most
useful interpolation method is the following:
Fact 1.3.1. (Lagrange interpolation formula) If p is a polynomial with degree
n or less, then and x0 1, · · · xn are distinct reals, then
n
X Y x − xj
p(x) = p(xi ) .
i=0
xi − xj
0≤j≤n
i6=j
Verify that the polynomial found by the above formula actually does satisfy
the given data set. By the discussion in the preceeding paragraphs, it has to be
unique.
Polynomials are so-called continuous functions. But what does that mean?
In high school, continuity is handwaved as “drawable without lifting your pen-
cil”, but that is hardly satisfactory. It is not hard to come up with erratic
examples where the intuition in the “not-lifting-your pencil” idea fails, not to
mention erratic situation such as when the student decides use a pen to draw.
So what do we mean when we say a function, say reals to reals, is continuous?
Definition 1.4.1. (Very informal) A function f : R → R is continuous at a
if no matter how small an interval you choose around f (a), there is a small
interval around a that is mapped into that interval by f .4
In other words, if you gradually “close in on” the point a, f (x) will also
“close in on” f (a); f doesn’t have a sudden “jump” at a. If f happens to be
continuous at every point in R, we say that f is a continuous function (on R).
Continuity, among other things, gives a very useful property:
Fact 1.4.1. (Intermediate value property) If p is a polynomial so that p(x) = a
and p(y) = b (x < y), then p attains all values strictly between a and b on the
interval (x, y). In particular, if p has different signs at x and y, then it has a
root between them.
Now we will look at behaviour of polynomials for large inputs.
Look at the polynomial f (x) = 2x3 + 3x + 1. For really large values of x,
the terms 3x and 1 will be miniscule compared to the leading term, so the 2x3
will dominate. If we ignore the scaling factor of 2, the function, in some sense,
“behaves” roughly like x3 . We express this as f (x) = Θ(x3 ). What this means
is that for huge x, this will grow arbitraily large. Of course, this also means
that quadratic polynomials grow like x2 , and in general n degree polynomials
grow like xn . So if f, g are two polynomials so that deg f > deg g, then for large
enough x, |f (x)| will outgrow |g(x)|. This is expressed as f (x) = O(g(n)), or
g(x) = o(f (x)).
Finally, note that if the leading coefficient is positive, then f (x) will approach
+∞ as x → +∞, whereas if the leading coefficient is negative, f (x) → −∞ for
x → +∞. The behaviour when x → −∞ can be deduced similarly, except it
happens to also depend on whether deg f is odd or even. Can you figure out
how exactly?
1.5 Problems
Problem 1.5.1 Find all real polynomials P (x) that satisfy
P (x3 − 2) = P (x)3 − 2.
Problem 1.5.2 If the polynomials f (x) and g(x) are written on a blackboard
then we can also write down the polynomials f (x) ± g(x), f (x)g(x), f (g(x)) and
cf (x), where c is an arbitrary real constant. The polynomials x3 − 3x2 + 5 and
x2 − 4x are written on the blackboard. Can we write a nonzero polynomial of
the form xn − 1 after a finite number of steps? Justify your answer.
Problem 1.5.3 Let f be a polynomial with real coefficients and suppose f
has no nonnegative real root. Prove that there exists a polynomial h with real
coefficients such that the coefficients of f h are nonnegative.
Problem 1.5.4 A real polynomial of odd degree has all positive coefficients.
Prove that there is a (possibly trivial) permutation of the coefficients such that
the resulting polynomial has exactly one real zero.
Problem 1.5.5 N different numbers are written on blackboard and one of
these numbers is equal to 0. One may take any polynomial such that each
of its coefficients is equal to one of written numbers (there may be some equal
coefficients) and write all its roots on blackboard. After some of these operations
all integers between −2016 and 2016 were written on blackboard (and some other
numbers possibly). Find the smallest possible value of N .
Problem 1.5.6 Suppose f, g ∈ R[x] are non constant polynomials. Suppose
neither of f, g is the square of a real polynomial but f (g(x)) is. Prove that
g(f (x)) is not the square of a real polynomial.
Problem 1.5.7 Let f be a monic real polynomial of degree n, and let x0 <
x2 < · · · < xn be some integers. Prove that there is an integer k ∈ {0, 1, · · · , n}
so that |f (xk )| ≥ 2n!n .
1.5. PROBLEMS 7
Problem 1.5.8 Let f and g be two polynomials with integer coefficients such
that the leading coefficients of both the polynomials are positive. Suppose
deg(f ) is odd and the sets {f (a) | a ∈ Z} and {g(a) | a ∈ Z} are the same.
Prove that there exists an integer k such that g(x) = f (x + k).
Problem 1.5.9 Determine whether there exist non-constant polynomials P (x)
and Q(x) with real coefficients satisfying
Inequalities and
discrimination
2.1 Introduction
In this chapter, we will look into how to derive and solve various inequalities.
We’ll focus mostly on mathematical inequalities and less on social inequalities
and discriminations; those are prerequisites for a different camp known as the
concentration camp.
4. You can scale inequalities by positive reals (a > b =⇒ ac > bc for c > 0);
Let’s look at the first item here; using that, we can take squares of any random
expression and get an inequality out of it. What if we decide to look at (a − b)2 ?
The fact that this is non-negative leads to a2 + b2 ≥ 2ab, and via a change of
variables, we see that for non-negative x, y,
x+y √
≥ xy.
2
9
10 CHAPTER 2. INEQUALITIES AND DISCRIMINATION
The left side is the normal average of x, y; the right side, on the other hand, is a
different kind of average. It also gives some number between x, y, but “between”
in a multiplicative sense. The above inequality states that for any non-negative
numbers, the normal average (arithmetic mean) is always greater than the
“multiplicative” average (geometric mean.). In fact, this generalises to n
numbers:
Fact 2.2.1. (AM-GM inequality) Given any n non-negative numbers x1 , · · · , xn ,
we have
x1 + x2 + · · · + xn √
≥ n x1 x2 · · · xn .
n
Equality holds if and only if x1 = x2 = · · · = xn .
One of the many ways to prove this is to use the so-called Cauchy induc-
tion; you prove this for n = 2k by induction, then generalise to any n < 2k by
adding “dummy points” to the data set.
Of course, the xi ’s need not be distinct. In fact, if our data set has ki
instances of xi , the above inequality becomes
k1 x1 + · · · + kn xn
q
xk11 · · · xknn .
k1 +···+kn
≥
k1 + · · · + kn
In the above, we took ki ’s to be integers. By some continuity argument, we can
in fact generalise them to be anything:
Fact 2.2.2. (Weighted AM-GM inequality) Given non-negative reals x1 , · · · , xn
and positive reals k1 , · · · , kn , we have
k1 x1 + · · · + kn xn
q
xk11 · · · xknn .
k +···+kn
≥ 1
k1 + · · · + kn
Often, the special case of the above fact where k1 + · · · + kn = 1 is termed
as weighted AM-GM inequality. Of course, these two forms are equivalent.
2.3 CS:Go
In this section, we look at another interesting result in inequalities. As with a
lot of important results in math, this has several names with equally confus-
ing spellings and pronunciation, including, Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, Cauchy-
Bunyakovsky inequality, and of course Cauchy-Schwarz-Bunyakovsky inequality.
So to save time and effort, we’ll henceforth call this CS inequality. For now,
we’ll using CS as a noun; once you attain divine mastery on the dark arts of
inequalities, you unlock the power to use it as a verb, for example, “I heard
arqady CSed that problem.”
Without further ado, here’s the inequality:
Fact 2.3.1. (Cauchy-Schwarz Inequality) Let a1 , · · · , an , b1 , · · · , bn be 2n reals,
then
(a1 b1 + a2 b2 + · · · + an bn )2 ≤ (a21 + · · · + a2n )(b21 + · · · + b2n ).
2.4. FROM REARRANGEMENT TO CHEBYSHEV 11
There are many proofs of this result; one popular approach involves looking
at the discriminant of the quadratic polynomial (a1 x − b1 )2 + · · · + (an x − bn )2 .
As an exercise, use this idea to figure out when equality holds in CS inequality.
Also, try to prove the QM-AM inequality using this (look up what QM-AM
inequality is).
Useful as this is, there’s another form of Cauchy-Schwarz inequality that is
more readily applied in many olympiad contexts:
Fact 2.3.2. (Titu’s Lemma, or Engel form of CS) For n reals x1 , · · · , xn and n
positive reals y1 , · · · , yn , we have
x21 x2 (x1 + · · · + xn )2
+ ··· + n ≥ .
y1 yn y1 + · · · + yn
Prove this from CS. Do you see why we need yi ’s to be positive?
2 For some mysterious reason, in amny older texts convex and concave are called concave
Fact 2.6.4. (Muirhead) Let (a1 , · · · , an ) (b1 , · · · , bn ). Then for positive reals
x1 , · · · , xn , we have
X X
xa1 1 · · · xann ≥ xb11 · · · xbnn .
sym sym
P
Here sym means we are are taking the sum over all possible permutations of
x1 , · · · , xn .
To get a feel for Muirhead, try writing it out for, say, three variables x, y, z
and any two sequences (one majorizing the other) of your choice, Then prove it
using weighted AM-GM (you may need to choose your weights cleverly to apply
AM-GM).
Fact 2.6.5. (Power mean inequality) Let x1 , · · · , xn be positive reals with
weights w1 , · · · , wn adding up to 1. For r 6= 0, define the r−th power mean
1
Mr as (w1 xr1 + · · · + wn xrn ) r , and define M0 to be xw wn
1 · · · xn
1
(the weighted
geometric mean). Then for any two reals r > s, we have Mr > Ms .
We have barely scratched the surface the plethora of techniques used to prove
inequalities. Apart from general methods such as expressing sum of squares,
telescoping or induction, and those already mentioned here, the following are
worth mentioning:
1. Minkowski’s inequality
2. Tangent line trick
3. Mixing variable
4. Cauchy reverse technique
14 CHAPTER 2. INEQUALITIES AND DISCRIMINATION
5. n − 1 EV technique
7. Lagrange multipliers
and so on. Interested readers are advised to look them up on the internet.
2.7 Problems
√ √
7 √
Problem 2.7.1 Let a, b, c be positive reals satisfying a + b + c = 7
a+ b+ 7
c.
Prove that aa bb cc ≥ 1.
Problem 2.7.2 Let a, b, c, d be real numbers satisfying |a|, |b|, |c|, |d| > 1 and
abc + abd + acd + bcd + a + b + c + d = 0. Prove that
1 1 1 1
+ + + > 0.
a−1 b−1 c−1 d−1
Problem 2.7.3 Given non-negative reals x, y, z satisfying x + y + z = 1, find
the minimum possible value of
1 1 1
x x+1 y y+1 z z+1
+ + .
x+1 y+1 z+1
(1 + a2 )2 (1 + a3 )3 · · · (1 + an )n > nn .
Problem 2.7.7 Let x, y, and z be real numbers (not√ necessarily positive) such
that x4 + y 4 + z 4 + xyz = 4. Show that x ≤ 2 and 2 − x ≥ y+z
2 .
2.7. PROBLEMS 15
Problem 2.7.10 Find the largest real constant a such that for all n ≥ 1 and
for all real numbers x0 , x1 , ..., xn satisfying 0 = x0 < x1 < x2 < · · · < xn we
have
1 1 1 2 3 n+1
+ + ··· + ≥a + + ··· +
x1 − x0 x2 − x1 xn − xn−1 x1 x2 xn
16 CHAPTER 2. INEQUALITIES AND DISCRIMINATION
Chapter 3
Functional equations
3.1 Introduction
Often times you’ll encounter a problem that starts with “find all functions...”.
More often than not, these will specify some properties of a mystery function
and ask to find all such functions. Sometimes, they’ll ask to prove some more
properties of that function. In this section, we’ll look at some tactics to tackle
these sort of problems.
17
18 CHAPTER 3. FUNCTIONAL EQUATIONS
2. Use these properties to deduce more information about f , and use these
to gather even more information, until you have narrowed down f to a
few possibilities.
The second step is usually the hardest and the key part of a solution; we’ll come
to that later. But now some words about the other two points are in order.
Point 1 This is where you get an idea of the general setting of the problem;
what facts are known and how to use them. For example, if the function is from
R → R, and it satisfies the condition f (x2 + y) = f (x)2 + y for all reals x, y,
you can use the condition for any specific real values of x and y. Note that
the domain of the function (where the function is defined) and domain of
the functional equation (for which values of the variables you can use the
given condition) are two separate things. Very commonly these coincide, but
that need not be the case always.
of functions you have at this point are still coming from a one-way implication;
they need not satify the original conditions. This is why it is so important to
check back if they do.
One very common mistake is falling victim to the so called pointwise trap.
Suppose you’ve done some mumbo-jumbo with the equation to get something
like f (x)(f (x) − x2 ) = 0 for all x ∈ R. Can you conclude that the only solutions
are f (x) ≡ 0 and f (x) = x2 ? No. This is because the statemnet you obtained
implies
(f (x) = 0 or f (x) = x2 ) for all x ∈ R.
This is different form
satisfies the condition you obtained. To actually avoid this trap, say in this
case, you will have to prove f (x) = 0 and f (y) = y 2 cannot happen at the same
time for non-zero x, y.
Now we will talk about actual solving strategies. The methods that are often
handy are:
Plugging in values and substitution Using the given condition cleverly for
specific values of the variables can give information about f at particular point;
at times they can give information about f at a lot more points. For example
if f : R → R satisfies f (x + y) = xf (y), then plugging in x = 0 immediately
gives f (y) = 0 for all y which gives away the answer. Plugging in 0, ±1 or other
nice numbers that make a lot of terms cancel out are often helpful. Sometimes
you may want to substitute expressions to cancel out stuff; say if the equation
is f (x2 + y) = f (x) + other stuff, subbing in y = x − x2 might not be a bad idea.
However, make sure the substitution is logical; for example, in f (x2 +3) = x2 +3,
you can’t just sub in y = x2 + 3 and conclude f (y) = y for all real y. The reason
is x2 + 3 does not cover the entirety of real line.
1. f is linear;
Convince yourself that these follow from the previous fact. So to prove
a Cauchy function is linear, all you need is to prove one of monotonicity or
boundedness (continuity works too, but that’s usually harder unless it’s given).
There’s one more condition that works:
All this while we’ve only talked about when the domain of f is the whole
of R; but these hold true even if it’s some other non-trivial interval in R. In
particular, any additive function f : R+ → R+ is necessarily linear (since the
co-domain is already bounded from below).
So again, with any of those nice conditions like monotonicity and bounded-
ness, f has to ax + b in this case.
3.5 Problems
As always, here are some cute problems you may want to try:
Problem 3.5.2 Find all strictly monotonic functions f : (0, +∞) → (0, +∞)
such that 2
x
f =x
f (x)
for all x ∈ (0, +∞)
22 CHAPTER 3. FUNCTIONAL EQUATIONS
f x2 + xf (y) = xf (x + y)
for all x, y ∈ R.
Problem 3.5.5 Find all surjective functions f : R → R such that for every
x, y ∈ R, we have
f x2 + xf (y) = xf (x + y)
for all x, y ∈ R+ .
Problem 3.5.7 Find all surjective functions f : N → N such that for all positive
integers a and b, exactly one of the following equations is true:
f (a) = f (b),
f (a + b) = min{f (a), f (b)}.
Problem 3.5.9 Find all functions f : R → R such that for all real numbers
a, b, and c:
1. If a + b + c ≥ 0 then f (a3 ) + f (b3 ) + f (c3 ) ≥ 3f (abc).
2. If a + b + c ≤ 0 then f (a3 ) + f (b3 ) + f (c3 ) ≤ 3f (abc).