Problem

Source: USA Team Selection Test for IMO 2023, Problem 2

Tags: combinatorics, USA TST, USA TST 2023, game, ilostthegame



Let $m$ and $n$ be fixed positive integers. Tsvety and Freyja play a game on an infinite grid of unit square cells. Tsvety has secretly written a real number inside of each cell so that the sum of the numbers within every rectangle of size either $m$ by $n$ or $n$ by $m$ is zero. Freyja wants to learn all of these numbers. One by one, Freyja asks Tsvety about some cell in the grid, and Tsvety truthfully reveals what number is written in it. Freyja wins if, at any point, Freyja can simultaneously deduce the number written in every cell of the entire infinite grid (If this never occurs, Freyja has lost the game and Tsvety wins). In terms of $m$ and $n$, find the smallest number of questions that Freyja must ask to win, or show that no finite number of questions suffice. Nikolai Beluhov