FOURTH INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN MATHEMATICS
July 30 – August 4, 1997, Plovdiv, BULGARIA
Second day — August 2, 1997
Problems and Solutions
Problem 1.
Let f be a C
3
(R) non-negative function, f(0)=f

(0)=0, 0 < f

(0).
Let
g(x) =


f(x)
f

(x)


for x = 0 and g(0) = 0. Show that g is bounded in some neighbourhood of 0.
Does the theorem hold for f ∈ C
2
(R)?
Solution.
Let c =
1
2


(x))
2
= 4c
2
x
2
+ O(x
3
),
2f(x)f

(x) = 4c
2
x
2
+ O(x
3
)
and
2(f

(x))
2

f(x) = 2(4c
2
x
2
+ O(x

1
Let f (x) = (x + |x|
3/2
)
2
= x
2
+ 2x
2

|x| + |x|
3
, so f is C
2
. For x > 0,
g(x) =
1
2

1
1 +
3
2
√
x


= −
1
2

E F
G H

.
Show that det M. det H = det A.
Solution.
Let I denote the identity n × n matrix. Then
det M. det H = det

A B
C D

· det

I F
0 H

= det

A 0
C I

= det A.
Problem 3.
Show that
∞

n=1
(−1)
n−1

(n+θ)| ≤
1 + α
n
α+1
. Since

1 + α
n
α+1
< +∞
for α > 0 and f(n) −→
n→∞
0 we get that
∞

n=1
(−1)
n−1
f(n) =
∞

n=1
(f(2n−1)−f(2n))
converges.
Now we have to prove that
sin (log n)
n
α
does not converge to 0 for α ≤ 0.
It suffices to consider α = 0.

|. Since a
n
→ 0 we get λ
n
→ 0.
2
We have k
n+1
− k
n
=
=
log(n + 1) − log n
π
− (λ
n+1
− λ
n
) =
1
π
log

1 +
1
n

− (λ
n+1
− λ

Problem 4.
a) Let the mapping f : M
n
→ R from the space
M
n
= R
n
2
of n × n matrices with real entries to reals be linear, i.e.:
(1) f(A + B) = f(A) + f(B), f (cA) = cf(A)
for any A, B ∈ M
n
, c ∈ R. Prove that there exists a unique matrix C ∈ M
n
such that f(A) = tr(AC) for any A ∈ M
n
. (If A = {a
ij
}
n
i,j=1
then
tr(A) =
n

i=1
a
ii
).

, i = 1, . . . , n −1 form a linear basis
for L. Since
E
ij
= E
ij
.E
jj
− E
jj
.E
ij
, i = j
E
ii
− E
nn
= E
in
.E
ni
− E
ni
.E
in
, i = 1, . . . , n −1,
then the property (2) shows that f is vanishing identically on L. Now, for
any A ∈ M
n
we have A −

Let f
n
= f ◦ f ◦ ··· ◦ f

 
n times
, f
0
= id, f
−n
= (f
−1
)
n
for every natural
number n. Let T (x) = {f
n
(x) : n ∈ Z} for every x ∈ X. The sets T (x) for
different x’s either coinside or do not intersect. Each of them is mapped by f
onto itself. It is enough to prove the theorem for every such set. Let A = T (x).
If A is finite, then we can think that A is the set of all vertices of a regular
n polygon and that f is rotation by
2π
n
. Such rotation can be obtained as a
composition of 2 symmetries mapping the n polygon onto itself (if n is even
then there are axes of symmetry making
π
n
angle; if n = 2k + 1 then there

j=1
b
j
3
−j
, b
j
∈ {0, 2}}.
There is an one-to-one mapping f : [0, 1) → C. Indeed, for x =
∞

j=1
a
j
2
−j
,
a
j
∈ {0, 1} we set f(x) =
∞

j=1
(2a
j
)3
−j
. Hence C is uncountable.
4
For k = 1, 2, . . . and i = 0, 1, 2, . . . , 2

j
3
j
+ 2


,
where i =
k−2

j=0
a
j
2
j
, a
j
∈ {0, 1}. Then
[0, 1) \ C =
∞

k=1
2
k−1
−1

i=0
(a
k,i
, b

k
is a piece-wise linear continuous functions with values at the knots
g
k

a
k,i
+ b
k,i
2

= 2
−k
, g
k
(0) = g
k
(1) = g
k
(a
k,i
) = g
k
(b
k,i
) = 0,
i = 0, 1, . . . , 2
k−1
− 1.
Then f is continuous and f “crosses the axis” at every point of the