Lonely runners as a dynamic system

Hugh Headley
October 26, 2015
Abstract
Treating runners as a system of independent bodies undergoing rotational
motion we deduce a condition for loneliness of runners. Making use of Laplace
transforms this condition is proven to be true for any number of runners greater
than 3 moving with distinct speeds.

Problem statement & Background

Suppose there are k runners with distinct positive real speeds v1 , v2 , ..., vk which
are distinct.
From a single starting point, at t time t = 0 each runner begins moving around
a circular track with circumference 1 at their constant speeds. For all i, does
there exist some time ti such that the ith runner is a distance greater than or
equal to k1 away from all other runners?
This problem was initially posed by Wills [?] in the context of diophantine
approximation and was reinterpreted by Bienia [?] as a problem involving tracks
and runners. The problem has applications in view obstruction problems which
has been explored widely by Cusick and Chen [3 - 7] and more recently in
boundary patrol by mobile agents [?] and in distance graphs [?].
The problem is trivial for 1 or 2 runners, a non-trivial case was first shown
to be true for 4 runners by Betke and Wills [?] and has since been shown to be
true for up to 7 runners by Barajas and Serra [?].
Czerwiski and Grytczuk citeczer2008 proved that for any number of runners
there exists a time when any given runner is a distance greater than or equal to
1
k away from all but one runner.
Dubickas proved that the conjecture is true for the case where there are more
33log(k)
.
than 16341 runners whose speeds increase in accordance with vi+1
vi 1+
k
It has been shown by Czerwisk [?] that almost all choices of speeds satisfy the
condition for loneliness at some time. Therefore if the speeds of runners are
chosen at random from a uniform distribution it is almost certain that they will
be lonely at some time.

Rotational motion interpretation of problem

Without loss of generality, it is taken that v1 < v2 < ... < vk .
1
.
As the circumference of the track is 1 the radius of the track r is 2
vi
The angular speed of each runner is i = r = 2vi
Let i be the angle which the ith runner has moved around the track. i is
a linear function of time, simply i = i t.
Let the difference between the angles which the ith runner and mth runner
have moved around the track be aim .
aim = i m

aim may be greater than 2 and so aim is not the angle between the ith and
m .
th

Let im be the angle between

the ith and the mth runner such that

im
im = aim 2 round a2
.
Where round(x) = dx 0.5e

In this way < im .

im is given in terms of the runners angular speeds and the time for which
they have been running:


(i t m t)
im = (i t m t) 2 round
(1)
2
im may be negative or positive, therefore we take the absolute angle between
the ith and mth runners, |im |.
The Lonely Runner Conjecture then states that for every m there exists some
time t

Condition for loneliness

For the mth runner to be lonely the absolute angular distance between the ith
and mth runners is required to be less than or equal to 2
k for all i 6= m.
Here we show that the Lonely Runner Conjecture is true for any number of
runners k 4.

When the number of runners is limited in this way 0 < 2

k 2

If |im | 2 then 0 cos(|im |) 1.

Let Q be the sum of the cosine of the absolute angular distances between
the mth runner and all other runners. Q is given by:
Q=

k
X

cos(|im |)

i=1,i6=m

If the ith runner is distant from the mth runner then |im | 2 .
Therefore, if the ith runner is distant from the mth runner then cos(|m1 |)
0.
cos(|im |) is a minimum at |im | = , therefore the smallest value of Q
where the mth runner is not lonely occurs when k 2 runners are an angle
|im | = from the mth runner and one runner is at an angle just less than 2
k
from the mth runner.
2
We define an angle just less than 2
0 ( k ) where > 0.
k as limP
k
2
In this case Qmin = lim0 cos( k ) + i=1,i6=m cos()

 2
(k 2)
Qmin = lim0 cos
k



2
Since 0 < lim0 ( 2

)
<
then
lim
cos

>0
0
k
2
k
It follows that lim0 cos( 2
k ) (k 2) > (k 2),
hence Qmin > 2 k.

As Qmin is the smallest value of Q that can occur while the mth runner
is not lonely, if there exists a time when Q < Qmin then mth runner must be
lonely at that time.
The problem of proving there is a time when the mth runner is lonely can
be reduced to:
k
P
Does there exist t > 0 such that
cos(|im |) < 2 k
i=1

Since cosine is an even function the modulus can be dropped,

k
P
cos(im ) < 2 k
i=1,i6=m

The case where

k
P

k
P

cos(im ) = 1 k satisfies

i=1,i6=m

cos(im ) < 2 k

i=1,i6=m

Therefore it is sufficient to prove that there exists a time t when

k
X

cos(im ) = 1 k

i=1,i6=m

Substituting the definition of im as in equation ?? gives

k
X


 t t 
i
m
=1k
cos (i t m t) 2 round
2
i=1,i6=m


mt
is an integer multiple of 2 this term can be neAs 2 round i t
2
glected
k
X

cos(i t m t) = 1 k

(2)

i=1,i6=m

Satisfaction of condition of loneliness

As previously shown, existence of a solution to equation ?? is sufficient to prove
the Lonely Runner Conjecture for 4 or more runners.
Taking the Laplace transform of both sides of the equation ?? gives

k
X

cos(i t m t) = L {1 k}
L

i=1,i6=m
k
X
i=1,i6=m

s
1k
=
s2 + (i m )2
s

If s 6= 0 the equation can be modified to

(3)

k
X
i=1,i6=m

s2
=1k
s2 + (i m )2

(4)

Equation ?? has no solution when s is real. Substituting s = xi gives:

k
X
i=1,i6=m

x2
=1k
x2 (i m )2

(5)

Let P (x) be the left hand side of equation ?? such that:

P (x) =

k
P
i=1,i6=m

x2
x2 (i m )2

Consider the absolute value of the angular speed of the ith runner relative
to the mth runner, |i m |. We define several sets of these values:
Let be the set of all i [1, k] where i 6= m and let be the set of all |i m |
for i .
We define T as the set of all i such that |i m | = inf ().
Then T is the set of all |i m | where i T .
Finaly, let R be the set of all i such that |i m | = inf (\T ).
P (x) can be rewritten as
P (x) =

X
i

x2

x2
(i m )2

Which can be decomposed into two parts

P (x) =

X
iT

x2

X
x2
x2
+
2
2
(i m )
x (i m )2
i\T

Consider the case where x = inf ()  for some  > 0

X

P (inf () ) =

iT

X
i\T

(inf () )2
(inf () )2 (i m )2
(inf () )2
(inf () )2 (i m )2

Expanding the terms,

X

P (inf () ) =

iT

X
i\T

inf ()2 2inf () + 2

inf ()2 2inf () + 2 (i m )2
inf ()2 2inf () + 2
inf ()2 2inf () + 2 (i m )2

Taking the limit of P (inf () ) as  tends to 0.

lim P (inf () ) =

lim

0

0

X
iT

+ lim

0
i\T

inf ()2 2inf () + 2

inf ()2 2inf () + 2 (i m )2
inf ()2 2inf () + 2
inf ()2 2inf () + 2 (i m )2

As inf () > 0 the numerators of the fractions are dominated by the inf ()2
term in the limit and the 2 and 2inf () terms vanish in the limit.
For i T |i m | = inf () and therefore (i m )2 inf ()2 = 0
For i \T |i m | > inf () and therefore (i m )2 inf ()2 > 0
With this in mind the limit simplifies to
X inf ()2
X
inf ()2
+
0
2inf ()
(i m )2 inf ()2

lim P (inf () ) = lim

0

iT

i\T

This simplifies slightly to

lim P (inf () ) = lim

0

0

X inf ()
2

iT

X
i\T

inf ()2
(i m )2 inf ()2

(6)

As inf () > 0 the first summation in equation ?? diverges towards .

The terms in the second summation are all positive and finite in the limit.
Therefore lim0 P (inf () ) diverges towards .
Now consider P ().
P () =

X
i

2

2
(i m )2

Again, taking the limit as  tends to 0 gives:

lim P () = lim

0

0

X
i

2
2 (i m )2

Since i 6= m for all i 6= m it follows that i m 6= 0 for all i .

Therefore the (i m )2 term dominates the value of the denominator in the
limit.
The limit can be evaluated as:
lim P () =

0

X
i

0
=0
(i m )2

In summary, as x approaches inf () from below P (x) approaches , and

as x approaches 0 from above P (x) approaches 0.

P (x) is continuous on the interval (0, inf ()) and 0 > 1k > , therefore
by the intermediate value theorem there exists some x (0, inf ()) such that
P (x ) = 1 k which is the solution to equation ??.
As the solution x = x exists for equation ?? the solution s = x i 6= 0 for
equation ?? exists. The solution s = x i exists in the Laplace domain, therefore
a solution to equation ?? exists in the time domain.
Solutions in the Laplace domain have the property that they correspond to a
real non-negative solution in the time domain. Clearly t = 0 is not a solution
to equation ??, therefore the solution in the time domain must exist for some
time t > 0.

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