South Eastern European Mathematical

Olympiad for University Students

Plovdiv, Bulgaria
March 10, 2010
Problem 1. Let f
0
: [0, 1] R be a continuous function. Dene the sequence of functions
f
n
: [0, 1] R by
f
n
(x) =
_
x
0
f
n1
(t) dt
for all integers n 1.
a) Prove that the series

n=1
f
n
(x) is convergent for every x [0, 1].
b) Find an explicit formula for the sum of the series

n=1
f
n
(x), x [0, 1].
Solution 1. a) Clearly f

n
= f
n1
for all n N. The function f
0
is bounded, so there exists a
real positive number M such that |f
0
(x)| M for every x [0, 1]. Then
|f
1
(x)|
_
x
0
|f
0
(t)| dt Mx, x [0, 1],
|f
2
(x)|
_
x
0
|f
1
(t)| dt M
x
2
2
, x [0, 1].
By induction, it is easy to see that
|f
n
(x)| M
x
n
n!
, x [0, 1], n N.
Therefore
max
x[0,1]
|f
n
(x)|
M
n!
, n N.
The series

n=1
1
n!
is convergent, so the series

n=1
f
n
is uniformly convergent on [0, 1].
b) Denote by F : [0, 1] R the sum of the series

n=1
f
n
. The series of the derivatives

n=1
f

n
is uniformly convergent on [0, 1], since

n=1
f

n
=

n=0
f
n
and the last series is uniformly convergent. Then the series

n=1
f
n
can be dierentiated term
by term and F

= F +f
0
. By solving this equation, we nd F(x) = e
x
__
x
0
f
0
(t)e
t
dt
_
, x [0, 1].
1
Solution 2. We write
f
n
(x) =
_
x
0
dt
_
t
0
dt
1
_
t
1
0
dt
2
. . .
_
t
n2
0
f
0
(t
n1
) dt
n1
=
_
. . .
_
0t
n1
...t
1
tx
f
0
(t
n1
) dt dt
1
. . . dt
n1
=
_
. . .
_
0tt
1
...t
n1
x
f
0
(t) dt dt
1
. . . dt
n1
=
_
x
0
f
0
(t) dt
_
x
t
dt
1
_
x
t
1
dt
2
. . .
_
x
t
n3
dt
n2
_
x
t
n2
dt
n1
=
_
x
0
f
0
(t)
(x t)
n1
(n 1)!
dt.
Thus
N

n=1
f
n
(x) =
_
x
0
f
0
(t)
_
N

n=1
(x t)
n1
(n 1)!
_
dt.
We have
e
xt
=
N1

n=0
(x t)
n
n!
+ e

(x t)
N
N!
, (0, x t) ,
N1

n=0
(x t)
n
n!
e
xt
, N .
Hence

_
x
0
f
0
(t)
_
N1

n=0
(x t)
n
n!
_
dt
_
x
0
f
0
(t)e
xt
dt

_
x
0
|f
0
(t)|e
xt
(x t)
N
N!
dt

1
N!
_
x
0
|f
0
(t)|e
xt
dt 0, N .
Problem 2. Inside a square consider circles such that the sum of their circumferences is twice
the perimeter of the square.
a) Find the minimum number of circles having this property.
b) Prove that there exist innitely many lines which intersect at least 3 of these circles.
Solution. a) Consider the circles C
1
, C
2
, . . . , C
k
with diameters d
1
, d
2
, ..., d
k
, respectively. De-
note by s the length of the square side. By using the hypothesis, we get
(d
1
+ d
2
+ + d
k
) = 8s.
Since d
i
s for i = 1, . . . , k, we have
8s = (d
1
+ d
2
+ + d
k
) ks,
which implies k
8

= 2.54. Hence, there are at least 3 circles inside the square.

b) Project the circles onto one side of the square so that their images are their diameters.
Since the sum of the diameters is approximately 2.54s and there are at least three circles in the
2
square, there exists an interval where at least three diameters are overlapping. The lines, passing
through this interval and perpendicular to the side on which the diameters are projected, are
the required lines.
Problem 3. Denote by M
2
(R) the set of all 2 2 matrices with real entries. Prove that:
a) for every A M
2
(R) there exist B, C M
2
(R) such that A = B
2
+ C
2
;
b) there do not exist B, C M
2
(R) such that
_
0 1
1 0
_
= B
2
+ C
2
and BC = CB.
Solution. a) Recall that every 2 2 matrix A satises A
2
(trA) A + (det A) E = 0 . It is
clear that
lim
t+
tr (A + tE) = + and lim
t+
det(A + tE)
tr(A + tE)
t = lim
t+
det At
2
tr (A + tE)
= .
Thus, for t large enough one has
A = (A + tE) tE =
1
tr(A + tE)
(A + tE)
2
+
_
det (A + tE)
tr (A + tE)
t
_
E
=
_
1
_
tr(A + tE)
(A + tE)
_
2
+
_
t
det (A + tE)
tr (A + tE)
_
2
(E)
=
_
1
_
tr(A + tE)
(A + tE)
_
2
+
_
t
det (A + tE)
tr (A + tE)
_
0 1
1 0
_
_
2
.
b) No. For B, C M
2
(R), consider B + iC, B iC M
2
(C) . If BC = CB then
(B + iC) (B iC) = B
2
+ C
2
. Thus
det
_
B
2
+ C
2
_
= det (B + iC) det (B iC) = | B + iC |
2
0,
which contradicts the fact that det
_
0 1
1 0
_
= 1 .
Problem 4. Suppose that A and B are n n matrices with integer entries, and det B = 0.
Prove that there exists m N such that the product AB
1
can be represented as
AB
1
=
m

k=1
N
1
k
,
where N
k
are n n matrices with integer entries for all k = 1, . . . , m, and N
i
= N
j
for i = j.
Solution. Suppose rst that n = 1. Then we may consider the integer 1 1 matrices as integer
numbers. We shall prove that for given integers p and q we can nd integers n
1
, . . . , n
m
such
that
p
q
=
1
n
1
+
1
n
2
+ +
1
n
m
and n
i
= n
j
for i = j.
In fact this is well known as the Egyptian problem. We write
p
q
=
1
q
+
1
q
+ +
1
q
(p
times) and ensure dierent denominators in the last sum by using several times the equality
1
x
=
1
x+1
+
1
x(x+1)
. For example,
3
5
=
1
5
+
1
5
+
1
5
, where we keep the rst fraction, we write
1
5
=
1
6
+
1
30
for the second fraction, and
1
5
=
1
7
+
1
42
+
1
31
+
1
930
for the third fraction. Finally,
3
5
=
1
5
+
1
6
+
1
7
+
1
30
+
1
31
+
1
42
+
1
930
.
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Now consider n > 1.
Case 1. Suppose that A is a nonsingular matrix. Denote by the least common multiple of
the denominators of the elements of the matrix A
1
. Hence the matrix C = BA
1
is integer
and nonsingular, and one has
AB
1
= C
1
.
According to the case n = 1, we can write
=
1
n
1
+
1
n
2
+ +
1
n
m
,
where n
i
= n
j
for i = j. Then
AB
1
= (n
1
C)
1
+ (n
2
C)
1
+ + (n
m
C)
1
.
It is easy to see that n
i
C = n
j
C for i = j.
Case 2. Now suppose that A is singular. First we will show that
A = Y + Z,
where Y and Z are nonsingular. If A = (a
ij
), for every i = 1, 2, . . . , n we choose an integer x
i
such that x
i
= 0 and x
i
= a
ii
. Dene
y
ij
=
_
_
_
a
ij
, if i < j
x
i
, if i = j
0, if i > j
and z
ij
=
_
_
_
0, if i < j
a
ii
x
i
, if i = j
a
ij
, if i > j.
Clearly, the matrices Y = (y
ij
) and Z = (z
ij
) are nonsingular. Moreover, A = Y + Z.
From Case 1 we have
Y B
1
=
k

r=1
(n
r
C)
1
, ZB
1
=
l

q=1
(m
q
D)
1
,
where
Y B
1
= C
1
, =
k

r=1
1
n
r
and ZB
1
= D
1
, =
l

q=1
1
m
q
,
C and D are integer and nonsingular. Hence,
AB
1
=
k

r=1
(n
r
C)
1
+
l

q=1
(m
q
D)
1
.
It remains to show that n
r
C = m
q
D for r = 1, 2, . . . , k and q = 1, 2, . . . , l. Indeed, assuming that
n
r
C = m
q
D and recalling that m
q
> 0 we nd D =
n
r
m
q
C. Hence ZB
1
= D
1
=
m
q
n
r
C
1
,
and then AB
1
= Y B
1
+ ZB
1
= C
1
+
m
q
n
r
C
1
=
_
+
m
q
n
r
_
C
1
. We have +
m
q
n
r
> 0,
and C
1
is nonsingular. Then AB
1
is nonsingular, and therefore A is nonsingular. This is a
contradiction.
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