Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2020

Algebra Difficulty 8.1 Shortlist Prove it European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO)

Problem:
Find all lists (x1,x2,,x2020)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{2020}\right) of non-negative real numbers such that the following three conditions are all satisfied:
(i) x1x2x2020x_{1} \leq x_{2} \leq \ldots \leq x_{2020};
(ii) x2020x1+1x_{2020} \leq x_{1}+1;
(iii) there is a permutation (y1,y2,,y2020)\left(y_{1}, y_{2}, \ldots, y_{2020}\right) of (x1,x2,,x2020)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{2020}\right) such that
i=12020((xi+1)(yi+1))2=8i=12020xi3 \sum_{i=1}^{2020}\left(\left(x_{i}+1\right)\left(y_{i}+1\right)\right)^{2}=8 \sum_{i=1}^{2020} x_{i}^{3}
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)(2,1,2) is a permutation of (1,2,2)(1,2,2), and they are both permutations of (2,2,1)(2,2,1). Note that any list is a permutation of itself.

Solution

Solution:
We first prove the inequality
((x+1)(y+1))24(x3+y3) ((x+1)(y+1))^{2} \geq 4\left(x^{3}+y^{3}\right)
for real numbers x,y0x, y \geq 0 satisfying xy1|x-y| \leq 1, with equality if and only if {x,y}={0,1}\{x, y\}=\{0,1\} or {x,y}={1,2}\{x, y\}=\{1,2\}.
Indeed,
4(x3+y3)=4(x+y)(x2xy+y2)((x+y)+(x2xy+y2))2=(xy+x+y+(xy)2)2(xy+x+y+1)2=((x+1)(y+1))2, \begin{aligned} 4\left(x^{3}+y^{3}\right) & =4(x+y)\left(x^{2}-x y+y^{2}\right) \\ & \leq\left((x+y)+\left(x^{2}-x y+y^{2}\right)\right)^{2} \\ & =\left(x y+x+y+(x-y)^{2}\right)^{2} \\ & \leq(x y+x+y+1)^{2} \\ & =((x+1)(y+1))^{2}, \end{aligned}
where the first inequality follows by applying the AM-GM inequality on x+yx+y and x2xy+y2x^{2}-x y+y^{2} (which are clearly nonnegative). Equality holds in the first inequality precisely if x+y=x2xy+y2x+y=x^{2}-x y+y^{2} and in the second one if and only if xy=1|x-y|=1. Combining these equalities we have x+y=(xy)2+xy=1+xyx+y=(x-y)^{2}+x y=1+x y or (x1)(y1)=0(x-1)(y-1)=0, which yields the solutions {x,y}={0,1}\{x, y\}=\{0,1\} or {x,y}={1,2}\{x, y\}=\{1,2\}.

Now, let (x1,x2,,x2020)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{2020}\right) be any sequence satisfying conditions (i) and (ii) and let (y1,y2,,y2020)\left(y_{1}, y_{2}, \ldots, y_{2020}\right) be any permutation of (x1,x2,,x2020)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{2020}\right). As 0min(xi,yi)max(xi,yi)min(xi,yi)+10 \leq \min \left(x_{i}, y_{i}\right) \leq \max \left(x_{i}, y_{i}\right) \leq \min \left(x_{i}, y_{i}\right)+1, we can apply inequality (1) to the pair (xi,yi)\left(x_{i}, y_{i}\right) and sum over all 1i20201 \leq i \leq 2020 to conclude that
i=12020((xi+1)(yi+1))24i=12020(xi3+yi3)=8i=12020xi3 \sum_{i=1}^{2020}\left(\left(x_{i}+1\right)\left(y_{i}+1\right)\right)^{2} \geq 4 \sum_{i=1}^{2020}\left(x_{i}^{3}+y_{i}^{3}\right)=8 \sum_{i=1}^{2020} x_{i}^{3}
Therefore, in order to satisfy condition (iii), every inequality must be an equality. Hence, for every 1i20201 \leq i \leq 2020 we must have {xi,yi}={0,1}\{x_{i}, y_{i}\}=\{0,1\} or {xi,yi}={1,2}\{x_{i}, y_{i}\}=\{1,2\}. By condition (ii), we see that either {xi,yi}={0,1}\{x_{i}, y_{i}\}=\{0,1\} for all ii or {xi,yi}={1,2}\{x_{i}, y_{i}\}=\{1,2\} for all ii.

If {xi,yi}={0,1}\{x_{i}, y_{i}\}=\{0,1\} for every 1i20201 \leq i \leq 2020, this implies that the sequences (x1,x2,,x2020)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{2020}\right) and (y1,y2,,y2020)\left(y_{1}, y_{2}, \ldots, y_{2020}\right) together have 2020 zeroes and 2020 ones. As (y1,y2,,y2020)\left(y_{1}, y_{2}, \ldots, y_{2020}\right) is a permutation of (x1,x2,,x2020)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{2020}\right) this implies that (x1,x2,,x2020)=(0,0,,0,1,1,,1)\left(x_{1}, x_{2}, \ldots, x_{2020}\right)=(0,0, \ldots, 0,1,1, \ldots, 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)\left(y_{1}, y_{2}, \ldots, y_{2020}\right)=\left(x_{2020}, x_{2019}, \ldots, x_{1}\right)), showing that this sequence indeed works. The same reasoning holds for the case that {xi,yi}={1,2}\{x_{i}, y_{i}\}=\{1,2\} for all ii.

Therefore, the only solutions are:
(0,0,,01010,1,1,,11010)(\underbrace{0,0, \ldots, 0}_{1010}, \underbrace{1,1, \ldots, 1}_{1010})
and
(1,1,,11010,2,2,,21010)(\underbrace{1,1, \ldots, 1}_{1010}, \underbrace{2,2, \ldots, 2}_{1010})

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.