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The IMO 2026 Problem 1 blackboard: boards, moves, reachability, and the gcd of ppp-adic valuations

Definition
IMO2026P1_Blackboard

by moutei · Sep 20, 2026 · Mathlib 0df444a (Lean v4.33.1)

combinatoricsgcdimoinvariantnumber-theory

The model for IMO 2026 Problem 1. A board is a Multiset ℕ: the source says the integers are "not necessarily different", so multiplicity matters and order does not.

A move picks m > 1 and n > 1 from different places and replaces them by gcd⁡(m,n)\gcd(m,n)gcd(m,n) and lcm⁡(m,n)/gcd⁡(m,n)\operatorname{lcm}(m,n)/\gcd(m,n)lcm(m,n)/gcd(m,n). "Different places" is modelled as m ∈ s together with n ∈ s.erase m, not as m ≠ n. This distinction is the whole modelling risk of the problem: a board holding two copies of 666 must admit a move, yielding gcd⁡(6,6)=6\gcd(6,6) = 6gcd(6,6)=6 and 6/6=16/6 = 16/6=1. Had distinctness been imposed on values, such a board would be wrongly terminal and part (a) of the problem would be false for it.

Reachability is the reflexive-transitive closure of the move relation, so a board is reachable from itself by the empty chain. A board is terminal when it admits no move at all, which — since a move needs two entries above 111 — holds exactly when at most one entry exceeds 111. bigPart collects the entries above 111, with multiplicity.

gcdExp p s is the quantity in the source's Claim: the gcd of the ppp-adic valuations of all entries, folded from the seed 000. The seed is the identity for gcd, so entries equal to 111 — whose valuation is 000 — do not affect the result, and the empty board gives 000.

Definition code
import Mathlib.Tactic
import Mathlib.NumberTheory.Padics.PadicVal.Basic
import Mathlib.RingTheory.UniqueFactorizationDomain.Nat

namespace IMO2026P1

/-!
The blackboard process of IMO 2026 Problem 1 (proposed by Giancarlo Kerg, LUX).

The board is a `Multiset ℕ`: the source says the integers are "not necessarily different",
so multiplicity matters and order does not.

A move picks `m > 1` and `n > 1` **from different places** and replaces them by
`gcd m n` and `lcm m n / gcd m n`. "Different places" is modelled as `m ∈ s` together with
`n ∈ s.erase m`, rather than as `m ≠ n`: that is what makes the move available when the same
value occupies two places, for instance on a board containing two copies of `2`.

Confucius "continues to make moves while it is possible to do so", so a terminal board is one
admitting no move at all. Since a move needs two entries exceeding `1`, a board is terminal
exactly when at most one entry exceeds `1`.
-/

/-- A blackboard. -/
abbrev Board := Multiset ℕ

/-- One move: replace `m, n > 1` taken from different places by `gcd m n` and
`lcm m n / gcd m n`. -/
def Move (s t : Board) : Prop :=
  ∃ m n : ℕ, 1 < m ∧ 1 < n ∧ m ∈ s ∧ n ∈ s.erase m ∧
    t = Nat.gcd m n ::ₘ (Nat.lcm m n / Nat.gcd m n) ::ₘ (s.erase m).erase n

/-- Boards reachable by finitely many moves, including zero moves. -/
def Reachable : Board → Board → Prop := Relation.ReflTransGen Move

/-- No move is possible. Equivalently, at most one entry exceeds `1`. -/
def IsTerminal (s : Board) : Prop := ¬ ∃ t, Move s t

/-- The entries of the board that exceed `1`. Part (a) asserts this is a singleton at a
terminal board. -/
def bigPart (s : Board) : Board := s.filter fun x => 1 < x

/-- The quantity in the source's Claim: the gcd of the `p`-adic valuations of all entries.
The gcd is folded with identity `0`, which is correct because `gcd 0 x = x`, so entries equal
to `1` — whose valuation is `0` — do not affect it. -/
def gcdExp (p : ℕ) (s : Board) : ℕ :=
  (s.map fun x => x.factorization p).fold Nat.gcd 0

end IMO2026P1
Source
IMO 2026 Problem 1, proposed by Giancarlo Kerg (LUX). Statement and solution: Evan Chen, IMO 2026 Solution Notes, section 1.1, updated 8 September 2026, https://web.evanchen.cc/exams/IMO-2026-notes.pdf
Read-back

What the Lean code literally says, in plain math · claude-opus-5

Read-back — declaration bundle (5 definitions, no theorems)

All five declarations live inside a single namespace, so their full names are qualified by it; the file contains definitions only — no lemma, no theorem, no proof obligation, and no sorry.

Board

Board is introduced as a reducible abbreviation for the type of finite multisets of natural numbers, Multiset N\mathrm{Multiset}\ \mathbb{N}Multiset N. It takes no arguments, declares no new type, and carries no invariant: a "board" is an unordered finite collection of natural numbers with multiplicities, and every natural number is allowed as an entry, including 000 and 111. Nothing constrains a board to be nonempty, to have a fixed cardinality, to consist of positive numbers, or to have distinct entries. Because the abbreviation is reducible, Board\mathrm{Board}Board and Multiset N\mathrm{Multiset}\ \mathbb{N}Multiset N are interchangeable everywhere below.

Move

Move\mathrm{Move}Move takes two explicit arguments s,t:Boards, t : \mathrm{Board}s,t:Board (no implicit or instance arguments) and returns a proposition. It asserts the existence of two natural numbers mmm and nnn — both existentially bound, both ranging over all of N\mathbb{N}N — satisfying five conjoined conditions:

∃ m n∈N,1<m  ∧  1<n  ∧  m∈s  ∧  n∈(s∖ ⁣ ⁣∖m)  ∧  t=gcd⁡(m,n) :: (lcm⁡(m,n)gcd⁡(m,n)) :: ((s∖ ⁣ ⁣∖m)∖ ⁣ ⁣∖n)\exists\, m\, n \in \mathbb{N},\quad 1 < m \;\wedge\; 1 < n \;\wedge\; m \in s \;\wedge\; n \in (s \setminus\!\!\setminus m) \;\wedge\; t = \gcd(m,n) \,::\, \Bigl(\tfrac{\operatorname{lcm}(m,n)}{\gcd(m,n)}\Bigr) \,::\, \bigl((s \setminus\!\!\setminus m) \setminus\!\!\setminus n\bigr)∃mn∈N,1<m∧1<n∧m∈s∧n∈(s∖∖m)∧t=gcd(m,n)::(gcd(m,n)lcm(m,n)​)::((s∖∖m)∖∖n)

where s∖ ⁣ ⁣∖xs \setminus\!\!\setminus xs∖∖x denotes multiset erasure, which removes exactly one copy of xxx from sss (and returns sss unchanged if xxx does not occur in sss), and a::ua :: ua::u denotes multiset insertion, which adds one copy of aaa to uuu. Spelled out: mmm is required to be strictly greater than 111; nnn is required to be strictly greater than 111; mmm is required to be a member of sss; nnn is required to be a member of the multiset sss after one copy of mmm has been deleted; and ttt is required to be equal, as a multiset, to the multiset obtained by deleting one copy of mmm from sss, then deleting one copy of nnn from the result, and then inserting the two values gcd⁡(m,n)\gcd(m,n)gcd(m,n) and lcm⁡(m,n)/gcd⁡(m,n)\operatorname{lcm}(m,n) / \gcd(m,n)lcm(m,n)/gcd(m,n). The final clause is an equation, not an inclusion or a membership: once mmm and nnn are fixed, ttt is pinned down exactly, so Move s t\mathrm{Move}\ s\ tMove s t holds precisely when some admissible choice of m,nm, nm,n produces exactly the multiset ttt.

Distinctness. The two chosen numbers are not required to be distinct as values. The only separation imposed is positional: mmm must occupy some copy in sss, and nnn must occupy some copy in the multiset that remains after one copy of mmm has been removed. Concretely, if the board contains two (or more) copies of the same number v>1v > 1v>1, then m=n=vm = n = vm=n=v is permitted, because after erasing one copy of vvv the other copy is still present; in that case the move deletes both copies of vvv and inserts gcd⁡(v,v)=v\gcd(v,v) = vgcd(v,v)=v together with lcm⁡(v,v)/gcd⁡(v,v)=v/v=1\operatorname{lcm}(v,v)/\gcd(v,v) = v/v = 1lcm(v,v)/gcd(v,v)=v/v=1, i.e. the board {v,v,… }\{v, v, \dots\}{v,v,…} becomes {v,1,… }\{v, 1, \dots\}{v,1,…}. Conversely, if vvv occurs exactly once in sss, the requirement n∈s∖ ⁣ ⁣∖mn \in s \setminus\!\!\setminus mn∈s∖∖m fails for n=vn = vn=v, m=vm = vm=v.

Re-use of a single position. The relation does not permit the same occurrence (position) to be used twice: the second element is drawn from s∖ ⁣ ⁣∖ms \setminus\!\!\setminus ms∖∖m, whose multiplicity of mmm is one less than that of sss, so a value occurring only once cannot serve as both mmm and nnn. Two chosen values may coincide only when backed by two separate copies.

Entries not eligible. Entries equal to 000 or 111 can never be selected as mmm or nnn, since 1<01 < 01<0 and 1<11 < 11<1 are false; such entries can only sit passively in the untouched remainder (s∖ ⁣ ⁣∖m)∖ ⁣ ⁣∖n(s \setminus\!\!\setminus m) \setminus\!\!\setminus n(s∖∖m)∖∖n.

Division. The quotient lcm⁡(m,n)/gcd⁡(m,n)\operatorname{lcm}(m,n)/\gcd(m,n)lcm(m,n)/gcd(m,n) is natural-number (floor, truncating) division, the total operation that returns 000 when the divisor is 000. Under the hypotheses actually present, m>1m > 1m>1 forces gcd⁡(m,n)≥1\gcd(m,n) \ge 1gcd(m,n)≥1, so no division by zero can occur here, and since gcd⁡(m,n)\gcd(m,n)gcd(m,n) divides lcm⁡(m,n)\operatorname{lcm}(m,n)lcm(m,n) the quotient is exact; the file nonetheless asserts nothing about exactness — the expression is whatever truncating division returns. Each move removes two copies and inserts two values, so cardinality is preserved by construction, but no declaration in the file states this.

Reachable

Reachable\mathrm{Reachable}Reachable is defined, with no arguments written on the left-hand side, as a relation on boards: it is the reflexive–transitive closure of Move\mathrm{Move}Move. Thus Reachable s t\mathrm{Reachable}\ s\ tReachable s t holds exactly when there is a finite — possibly empty — chain of boards

s=u0, u1, …, uk=t,k≥0,s = u_0,\ u_1,\ \dots,\ u_k = t,\qquad k \ge 0,s=u0​, u1​, …, uk​=t,k≥0,

with Move ui ui+1\mathrm{Move}\ u_{i}\ u_{i+1}Move ui​ ui+1​ for each 0≤i<k0 \le i < k0≤i<k. In particular Reachable s s\mathrm{Reachable}\ s\ sReachable s s holds for every board sss, including the empty board and boards from which no move is possible, because the empty chain (k=0k = 0k=0) is allowed. The relation is directed: Reachable s t\mathrm{Reachable}\ s\ tReachable s t does not entail Reachable t s\mathrm{Reachable}\ t\ sReachable t s. No bound on the length kkk is asserted, and nothing asserts that such a chain terminates or that any particular board is reachable from any other.

IsTerminal

IsTerminal\mathrm{IsTerminal}IsTerminal takes one explicit argument s:Boards : \mathrm{Board}s:Board and asserts the negation of an existential over boards:

¬ ∃ t:Board, Move s t,\neg\, \exists\, t : \mathrm{Board},\ \mathrm{Move}\ s\ t,¬∃t:Board, Move s t,

i.e. there is no board ttt to which sss is related by Move\mathrm{Move}Move. Unfolding Move\mathrm{Move}Move, and using that the target ttt is uniquely determined by the choice of mmm and nnn (so a witness ttt exists as soon as an admissible pair exists), this says exactly: there do not exist m,n∈Nm, n \in \mathbb{N}m,n∈N with 1<m1 < m1<m, 1<n1 < n1<n, m∈sm \in sm∈s and n∈s∖ ⁣ ⁣∖mn \in s \setminus\!\!\setminus mn∈s∖∖m. In terms of entries, IsTerminal s\mathrm{IsTerminal}\ sIsTerminal s holds precisely when sss does not contain two distinct occurrences (counted with multiplicity) of entries exceeding 111 — equivalently, when at most one entry of sss is strictly greater than 111. Boards with zero such entries and boards with exactly one such entry are both terminal; a board with a single entry v>1v > 1v>1 repeated twice is not terminal. Entries equal to 000 or 111 never obstruct terminality, regardless of how many of them there are. The quantification is over all boards ttt of type Multiset N\mathrm{Multiset}\ \mathbb{N}Multiset N; no restriction to boards of the same size or reachable boards is imposed.

bigPart

bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart takes one explicit argument s:Boards : \mathrm{Board}s:Board and returns a board: the sub-multiset of sss consisting of those entries xxx satisfying 1<x1 < x1<x, retained with their multiplicities, and with all entries equal to 000 and 111 discarded. The filtering predicate x↦(1<x)x \mapsto (1 < x)x↦(1<x) requires a decidability instance, which is supplied automatically by the decidability of the strict order on N\mathbb{N}N; this is the declaration's only instance argument and it imposes no mathematical content. bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart of the empty board is the empty board, bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart of a board of all 111s (or all 000s, or any mixture of 000s and 111s) is the empty board, and bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart of a singleton {a}\{a\}{a} is {a}\{a\}{a} if a>1a > 1a>1 and ∅\varnothing∅ otherwise. This definition is not referenced by any other declaration in the file; in particular no connection between bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart and IsTerminal\mathrm{IsTerminal}IsTerminal, Move\mathrm{Move}Move or Reachable\mathrm{Reachable}Reachable is stated anywhere.

gcdExp

gcdExp\mathrm{gcdExp}gcdExp takes two explicit arguments, a natural number ppp and a board sss, and returns a natural number. It first maps every entry xxx of sss to ord⁡p(x)\operatorname{ord}_p(x)ordp​(x), the exponent of ppp in the prime factorisation of xxx (the multiplicity of ppp in the list of prime factors of xxx), producing a multiset of natural numbers of the same cardinality as sss; it then folds that multiset with the binary operation gcd⁡\gcdgcd on N\mathbb{N}N, starting from the initial value 000:

gcdExp(p,s)  =  gcd⁡(0, ord⁡p(x1), …, ord⁡p(xk)),s={x1,…,xk}.\mathrm{gcdExp}(p, s) \;=\; \gcd\bigl(0,\ \operatorname{ord}_p(x_1),\ \dots,\ \operatorname{ord}_p(x_k)\bigr),\qquad s = \{x_1, \dots, x_k\}.gcdExp(p,s)=gcd(0, ordp​(x1​), …, ordp​(xk​)),s={x1​,…,xk​}.

The fold is over an unordered multiset and is therefore well-defined only because gcd⁡\gcdgcd is commutative and associative; those two facts are supplied as typeclass instance arguments (the commutativity and associativity instances for gcd⁡\gcdgcd on N\mathbb{N}N) and are the declaration's only implicit/instance content.

The starting value. Since gcd⁡(0,a)=a\gcd(0, a) = agcd(0,a)=a for every a∈Na \in \mathbb{N}a∈N, the seed 000 is the identity element of gcd⁡\gcdgcd and therefore contributes nothing to a nonempty board; its only visible effect is to fix the value on the empty board, where gcdExp(p,∅)=0\mathrm{gcdExp}(p, \varnothing) = 0gcdExp(p,∅)=0.

An entry of valuation zero. For the same reason, an entry xxx with ord⁡p(x)=0\operatorname{ord}_p(x) = 0ordp​(x)=0 does not collapse the result to 000: taking gcd⁡\gcdgcd with 000 leaves the accumulated value unchanged. The result is 000 exactly when every entry has valuation 000 (or the board is empty); otherwise it is the greatest common divisor of the nonzero valuations present.

Primality. The definition places no hypothesis on ppp: ppp is an arbitrary natural number, and no assumption, typeclass or otherwise, requires ppp to be prime. For p=0p = 0p=0, p=1p = 1p=1, or any composite ppp, the exponent ord⁡p(x)\operatorname{ord}_p(x)ordp​(x) is 000 for every xxx (a non-prime never occurs in a list of prime factors), so gcdExp(p,s)=0\mathrm{gcdExp}(p, s) = 0gcdExp(p,s)=0 for every board sss.

Degenerate entries. ord⁡p(0)=0\operatorname{ord}_p(0) = 0ordp​(0)=0 and ord⁡p(1)=0\operatorname{ord}_p(1) = 0ordp​(1)=0 by the totality of the factorisation function (the factor list of 000 and of 111 is empty); in particular an entry equal to 000 is treated as having valuation 000, not an infinite or undefined valuation, and thus leaves gcdExp\mathrm{gcdExp}gcdExp unchanged. On a singleton board {a}\{a\}{a} the value is gcd⁡(0,ord⁡p(a))=ord⁡p(a)\gcd(0, \operatorname{ord}_p(a)) = \operatorname{ord}_p(a)gcd(0,ordp​(a))=ordp​(a); on a board of all 111s it is 000; on the empty board it is 000.

Degenerate cases across the file

  • Empty board ∅\varnothing∅. No mmm can satisfy m∈∅m \in \varnothingm∈∅, so no move exists: IsTerminal ∅\mathrm{IsTerminal}\ \varnothingIsTerminal ∅ holds, Reachable ∅ t\mathrm{Reachable}\ \varnothing\ tReachable ∅ t holds only for t=∅t = \varnothingt=∅, bigPart ∅=∅\mathrm{bigPart}\ \varnothing = \varnothingbigPart ∅=∅, and gcdExp(p,∅)=0\mathrm{gcdExp}(p,\varnothing) = 0gcdExp(p,∅)=0 for every ppp.
  • Singleton board {a}\{a\}{a}. After erasing the unique copy of aaa nothing remains, so no second element exists and {a}\{a\}{a} is terminal for every aaa, including a>1a > 1a>1. gcdExp(p,{a})=ord⁡p(a)\mathrm{gcdExp}(p,\{a\}) = \operatorname{ord}_p(a)gcdExp(p,{a})=ordp​(a).
  • Board of all 111s (any multiplicity). 1<11 < 11<1 is false, so no entry is eligible; the board is terminal, bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart is empty, and gcdExp\mathrm{gcdExp}gcdExp is 000.
  • An entry equal to 000. Ineligible for selection (1<01 < 01<0 is false), discarded by bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart, and assigned valuation 000 by gcdExp\mathrm{gcdExp}gcdExp. A board such as {0,5}\{0, 5\}{0,5} is terminal.
  • Division. The only division is lcm⁡(m,n)/gcd⁡(m,n)\operatorname{lcm}(m,n)/\gcd(m,n)lcm(m,n)/gcd(m,n), in truncating natural-number division; under the standing hypothesis 1<m1 < m1<m the divisor is nonzero, and no statement in the file asserts that this division is exact or that its result is positive. Multiset erasure is likewise total and silently returns the multiset unchanged when the erased element is absent, though both erasures in Move\mathrm{Move}Move occur under explicit membership hypotheses.
  • Duplicate entries. Multiplicities matter throughout: membership, erasure, filtering and mapping all respect multiplicity, and two equal entries count as two occurrences for the purposes of Move\mathrm{Move}Move and IsTerminal\mathrm{IsTerminal}IsTerminal.

What is NOT asserted anywhere in this file

  • No theorem of any kind. The file contains only definitions and an abbreviation; it proves nothing, states no lemma, and contains no proof or sorry.
  • Nothing asserts that ppp is prime, or that gcdExp\mathrm{gcdExp}gcdExp has any relationship to Move\mathrm{Move}Move, Reachable\mathrm{Reachable}Reachable, IsTerminal\mathrm{IsTerminal}IsTerminal or bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart — in particular no invariance of gcdExp\mathrm{gcdExp}gcdExp under a move is claimed.
  • Nothing asserts that bigPart\mathrm{bigPart}bigPart is related to terminality, to the number of eligible entries, or to anything else; it is defined and never used.
  • Nothing asserts that Move\mathrm{Move}Move preserves cardinality, the product of the entries, the multiset of prime factorisations, or any other quantity.
  • Nothing asserts that gcd⁡(m,n)\gcd(m,n)gcd(m,n) divides lcm⁡(m,n)\operatorname{lcm}(m,n)lcm(m,n), that the displayed quotient is exact, or that the two inserted values are positive, distinct, or different from mmm and nnn.
  • Nothing asserts termination: there is no claim that iterating Move\mathrm{Move}Move halts, that a terminal board is reachable from every board, that the process is well-founded, or that any decreasing measure exists.
  • Nothing asserts confluence, determinism, or uniqueness of the terminal board reachable from a given board; Move\mathrm{Move}Move is a relation and may relate one board to many.
  • Nothing asserts that Reachable\mathrm{Reachable}Reachable is symmetric or an equivalence, nor any bound on the number of steps.
  • Nothing constrains a board to be nonempty, finite in a bounded sense, free of 000s and 111s, of fixed cardinality, or with distinct entries.
  • No characterisation of IsTerminal\mathrm{IsTerminal}IsTerminal in terms of counting entries greater than 111 is stated as a lemma; that reading is obtained by unfolding the definition, not by an asserted equivalence.
  • No existence claim is made: nothing states that any board admits a move, or that any board is terminal.

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