Problem

Source: 2021 Taiwan TST Round 3 Mock Day 1 P3

Tags: graph theory, combinatorics, Taiwan



Let $n$ and $k$ be positive integers, with $n\geq k+1$. There are $n$ countries on a planet, with some pairs of countries establishing diplomatic relations between them, such that each country has diplomatic relations with at least $k$ other countries. An evil villain wants to divide the countries, so he executes the following plan: (1) First, he selects two countries $A$ and $B$, and let them lead two allies, $\mathcal{A}$ and $\mathcal{B}$, respectively (so that $A\in \mathcal{A}$ and $B\in\mathcal{B}$). (2) Each other country individually decides wether it wants to join ally $\mathcal{A}$ or $\mathcal{B}$. (3) After all countries made their decisions, for any two countries with $X\in\mathcal{A}$ and $Y\in\mathcal{B}$, eliminate any diplomatic relations between them. Prove that, regardless of the initial diplomatic relations among the countries, the villain can always select two countries $A$ and $B$ so that, no matter how the countries choose their allies, there are at least $k$ diplomatic relations eliminated. Proposed by YaWNeeT.