Alice and Bob are playing a game. First, Alice chooses a partition $\mathcal{C}$ of the positive integers into a (not necessarily finite) set of sets, such that each positive integer is in exactly one of the sets in $\mathcal{C}$. Then Bob does the following operation a finite number of times. Choose a set $S \in \mathcal{C}$ not previously chosen, and let $D$ be the set of all positive integers dividing at least one element in $S$. Then add the set $D \setminus S$ (possibly the empty set) to $\mathcal{C}$. Bob wins if there are two equal sets in $\mathcal{C}$ after he has done all his moves, otherwise, Alice wins. Determine which player has a winning strategy.
Problem
Source: Nordic, NMC
Tags: Nordic, combinatorics, set
Davsch
15.04.2024 20:23
This construction is a bit complicated and I am not sure it works. We claim that Alice can win. First, we will construct a single set such that procedure $P$ described in the problem is not periodic.
Consider first $A=\{2^n\mid n\in\{0,2,4,\dots\}\}$. Then clearly $P(A)$ just contains the powers of $2$ which are not powers of $4$ and $P(P(A))=A$, etc. To make this non-periodic, we have to fill in other primes as follows:
\[
\begin{matrix}
2\cdot 3 \\
&2^2\cdot 5\\
2 \cdot 5 &&2^3\cdot 7\\
& 2^2\cdot 11 && 2^4\cdot 11
\end{matrix}
\]i.e. for each prime we take every second power of $2$ (and we extend this "triangle" by one each row). Also, we add all numbers with exactly one prime factor to this (other than $2$ itself).
Now clearly, the operation $P$ on this set will transform it $\{2,8,32,\dots\}$ and the numbers from the triangle as well, which will simply be the "gaps" that we skipped:
\[
\begin{matrix}
2\cdot 5\\
&2^2\cdot 7\\
2\cdot 11 &&2^3\cdot 11
\end{matrix}
\]etc. Now clearly we lose a row of this triangle at each step, so the set we get never repeats.
To obtain a partition from this, we repeat the exact same trick for powers of $3$, i.e. we take all powers of $3$ which are not powers of $9$ and not previously taken. To this, we add all numbers with at most two prime factors and build a triangle as above
\[
\begin{matrix}
3^2\cdot 5\\
&3^3\cdot 7\\
3^2\cdot 11 & & 3^4\cdot 11
\end{matrix}
\]etc. The same argument as above shows that iterating $P$ on this set never repeats. We can build a partition of all positive integers this way, at each step using the $k$-th prime, taking the union with such a triangle and adding all numbers with at most $k$ prime factors. Clearly, this forms a partition of $\mathbb{Z}^+$. Also, note that the numbers with at most $k$ prime factors "die out" after sufficiently many steps, so this is also not a problem.
Finally, we have to show that we cannot arrive at the same set by starting with different $A,B\in\mathcal{C}$ and applying $P$. For this, assume $A,B$ were created in the above procedure with primes $p,q$. Then clearly $A$ and all of $P(A),P(P(A)),\dots$ will contain numbers with arbitrarily high $\nu_p$, and similarly $B$ contains numbers with arbitrarily high $\nu_q$. In addition, if $A$ was constructed in the $k$-th step, then all primes $\neq p$ divide elements of $A$ at most $k$-times. Thus, $A$ and all of $P(A),P(P(A)),\dots$ cannot be equal to any one of $B,P(B),\dots$.
Be warned though, the write-up is extremely messy and almost incomprehensible.
Pancakerunner2
15.04.2024 20:34
Since $1$ divides every positive integer, shouldn't Bob win, only if he replicates the set with a $1$ in it, or if he manages to replicate another set using the set with a $1$?