Decreasing primes
Source: USAMO 1997
October 9, 2005
floor functioncalculusintegrationAMCUSA(J)MOUSAMOmodular arithmetic
Problem Statement
Let be the prime numbers listed in increasing order, and let be a real number between 0 and 1. For positive integer , define
x_k = \begin{cases} 0 & \mbox{if} \; x_{k-1} = 0, \$$.1in] {\displaystyle \left\{ \frac{p_k}{x_{k-1}} \right\}} & \mbox{if} \; x_{k-1} \neq 0, \end{cases}
where denotes the fractional part of . (The fractional part of is given by where is the greatest integer less than or equal to .) Find, with proof, all satisfying for which the sequence eventually becomes 0.