Problem: Find all lists (x1,x2,…,x2020) of non-negative real numbers such that the following three conditions are all satisfied: (i) x1≤x2≤…≤x2020; (ii) x2020≤x1+1; (iii) there is a permutation (y1,y2,…,y2020) of (x1,x2,…,x2020) such that i=1∑2020((xi+1)(yi+1))2=8i=1∑2020xi3 A permutation of a list is a list of the same length, with the same entries, but the entries are allowed to be in any order. For example, (2,1,2) is a permutation of (1,2,2), and they are both permutations of (2,2,1). Note that any list is a permutation of itself.
Solution
Solution: We first prove the inequality ((x+1)(y+1))2≥4(x3+y3) for real numbers x,y≥0 satisfying ∣x−y∣≤1, with equality if and only if {x,y}={0,1} or {x,y}={1,2}. Indeed, 4(x3+y3)=4(x+y)(x2−xy+y2)≤((x+y)+(x2−xy+y2))2=(xy+x+y+(x−y)2)2≤(xy+x+y+1)2=((x+1)(y+1))2, where the first inequality follows by applying the AM-GM inequality on x+y and x2−xy+y2 (which are clearly nonnegative). Equality holds in the first inequality precisely if x+y=x2−xy+y2 and in the second one if and only if ∣x−y∣=1. Combining these equalities we have x+y=(x−y)2+xy=1+xy or (x−1)(y−1)=0, which yields the solutions {x,y}={0,1} or {x,y}={1,2}.
Now, let (x1,x2,…,x2020) be any sequence satisfying conditions (i) and (ii) and let (y1,y2,…,y2020) be any permutation of (x1,x2,…,x2020). As 0≤min(xi,yi)≤max(xi,yi)≤min(xi,yi)+1, we can apply inequality (1) to the pair (xi,yi) and sum over all 1≤i≤2020 to conclude that i=1∑2020((xi+1)(yi+1))2≥4i=1∑2020(xi3+yi3)=8i=1∑2020xi3 Therefore, in order to satisfy condition (iii), every inequality must be an equality. Hence, for every 1≤i≤2020 we must have {xi,yi}={0,1} or {xi,yi}={1,2}. By condition (ii), we see that either {xi,yi}={0,1} for all i or {xi,yi}={1,2} for all i.
If {xi,yi}={0,1} for every 1≤i≤2020, this implies that the sequences (x1,x2,…,x2020) and (y1,y2,…,y2020) together have 2020 zeroes and 2020 ones. As (y1,y2,…,y2020) is a permutation of (x1,x2,…,x2020) this implies that (x1,x2,…,x2020)=(0,0,…,0,1,1,…,1) with 1010 zeroes and 1010 ones. Conversely, note that this sequence satisfies conditions (i), (ii), and (iii) (in (iii), we take (y1,y2,…,y2020)=(x2020,x2019,…,x1)), showing that this sequence indeed works. The same reasoning holds for the case that {xi,yi}={1,2} for all i.
Therefore, the only solutions are: (10100,0,…,0,10101,1,…,1) and (10101,1,…,1,10102,2,…,2)
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