Problem

Source: USA Winter TST for IMO 2019, Problem 4, by Ankan Bhattacharya

Tags: algebra, number theory



We say that a function $f: \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0} \times \mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0} \to \mathbb{Z}$ is great if for any nonnegative integers $m$ and $n$, \[f(m + 1, n + 1) f(m, n) - f(m + 1, n) f(m, n + 1) = 1.\]If $A = (a_0, a_1, \dots)$ and $B = (b_0, b_1, \dots)$ are two sequences of integers, we write $A \sim B$ if there exists a great function $f$ satisfying $f(n, 0) = a_n$ and $f(0, n) = b_n$ for every nonnegative integer $n$ (in particular, $a_0 = b_0$). Prove that if $A$, $B$, $C$, and $D$ are four sequences of integers satisfying $A \sim B$, $B \sim C$, and $C \sim D$, then $D \sim A$. Ankan Bhattacharya