Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /2 of 21

Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Prove it South Korea

Let xx, yy, zz be positive real numbers satisfying x+y+z=1x + y + z = 1. Prove that
(1+xy+yz+zx)(1+3x3+3y3+3z3)9(x+y)(y+z)(z+x)(x1+x3+9x24+y1+y3+9y24+z1+z3+9z24)2 \frac{(1 + xy + yz + zx)(1 + 3x^3 + 3y^3 + 3z^3)}{9(x + y)(y + z)(z + x)} \ge \left( \frac{x\sqrt{1+x}}{\sqrt[4]{3+9x^2}} + \frac{y\sqrt{1+y}}{\sqrt[4]{3+9y^2}} + \frac{z\sqrt{1+z}}{\sqrt[4]{3+9z^2}} \right)^2

Solution

By using x+y+z=1x + y + z = 1, we have
1+xy+yz+zx=(x+y+z)2+xy+yz+zx=(x+y)(y+z)+(y+z)(z+x)+(z+x)(x+y). 1+xy+yz+zx = (x+y+z)^2+xy+yz+zx = (x+y)(y+z)+(y+z)(z+x)+(z+x)(x+y).
With this equation and Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we can deduce that
(LHS)=19(11x+11y+11z)((x+3x3)+(y+3y3)+(z+3z3))(3x3+x9(1x)+3y3+y9(1y)+3z3+z9(1z))2 \begin{aligned} (LHS) &= \frac{1}{9} \left( \frac{1}{1-x} + \frac{1}{1-y} + \frac{1}{1-z} \right) \left( (x+3x^3) + (y+3y^3) + (z+3z^3) \right) \\ &\ge \left( \sqrt{\frac{3x^3+x}{9(1-x)}} + \sqrt{\frac{3y^3+y}{9(1-y)}} + \sqrt{\frac{3z^3+z}{9(1-z)}} \right)^2 \end{aligned}
Therefore, it is enough to show that for any real number s(0,1)s \in (0, 1), the inequality
3s3+s9(1s)(s1+s3+9s24)2 \frac{3s^3 + s}{9(1-s)} \ge \left( \frac{s\sqrt{1+s}}{\sqrt[4]{3+9s^2}} \right)^2
holds. If we expand the above inequality, then it is easy to check that this is equivalent to 3(9s21)203(9s^2 - 1)^2 \ge 0, thus solving the problem. From the last inequality, we can check that the equality holds when x=y=z=13x = y = z = \frac{1}{3}.
\square

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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