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Algebra Difficulty 7.6 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it Middle European Mathematical Olympiad (MEMO)

Problem:
Determine all triples (a,b,c)(a, b, c) of real numbers satisfying the system of equations
a2+ab+c=0b2+bc+a=0c2+ca+b=0 \begin{aligned} & a^{2}+a b+c=0 \\ & b^{2}+b c+a=0 \\ & c^{2}+c a+b=0 \end{aligned}

Solution

Solution:
If one of the numbers a,ba, b and cc is equal to zero, it is easy to see that the other two numbers also have to be equal to zero, which gives us the solution (0,0,0)(0,0,0).
Now assume that a,b,c0a, b, c \neq 0.
If all three numbers are positive, then the left-hand side of each equation is positive, while the right-hand sides are equal to zero, which is impossible.
Let us assume that only one of the numbers is positive, and without loss of generality let it be aa. Since b,c<0b, c<0, it follows that b2+bc+a>0b^{2}+b c+a>0, which is a contradiction.
It remains to consider the two following cases:

a. All three numbers are negative.
We substitute a=x,b=ya=-x, b=-y and c=zc=-z, where x,y,z>0x, y, z>0. The original system transforms into
x2+xy=zy2+yz=xz2+zx=y \begin{aligned} & x^{2}+x y=z \\ & y^{2}+y z=x \\ & z^{2}+z x=y \end{aligned}
The system is cyclic, so we can assume that xyx \leqslant y and xzx \leqslant z. Now we have
x2+xy=zxx+y1y2+yz=xyy+z1 \begin{aligned} & x^{2}+x y=z \geqslant x \Longrightarrow x+y \geqslant 1 \\ & y^{2}+y z=x \leqslant y \Longrightarrow y+z \leqslant 1 \end{aligned}
From the previous two inequalities we conclude that
x+y1y+z, i.e. xz x+y \geqslant 1 \geqslant y+z, \quad \text{ i.e. } \quad x \geqslant z
On the other hand xzx \leqslant z, so we get x=zx=z.
Now, from equation (1) it follows that x+y=1x+y=1, while from equation (2) it follows that
x=y2+yz=y2+yx=y(y+x)=y x=y^{2}+y z=y^{2}+y x=y(y+x)=y
Thus x=y=zx=y=z and from x+y=1x+y=1 we see that x=y=z=1/2x=y=z=1 / 2.
We easily verify that (a,b,c)=(12,12,12)(a, b, c)=\left(-\frac{1}{2},-\frac{1}{2},-\frac{1}{2}\right) is indeed a solution.

b. Exactly one of the numbers is negative.
Without loss of generality we can assume that cc is negative, while aa and bb are positive. From the second equation we conclude that b(b+c)=a<0b(b+c)=-a<0, thus b+c<0b+c<0. The third equation yields c(a+c)=b<0c(a+c)=-b<0, thus a+c>0a+c>0.
Adding a+ba+b to the first equation and cyclic permutation yields
a+b+c=(1a)(a+b)=(1b)(b+c)=(1c)(c+a) a+b+c=(1-a)(a+b)=(1-b)(b+c)=(1-c)(c+a)
The last product is positive. This implies that 1a>01-a>0 and 1b<01-b<0 by our above considerations. Therefore 0<a+c<1+c<b+c<00<a+c<1+c<b+c<0, a contradiction.

Solution by symmetric functions. We set
p:=a+b+c,q:=ab+ac+bc,r=abc p:=a+b+c, \quad q:=a b+a c+b c, \quad r=a b c
Our strategy will be to determine p,qp, q and rr by considering equations of the form
cycf(a,b,c)(a2+ab+c)=0 \sum_{\text{cyc}} f(a, b, c)\left(a^{2}+a b+c\right)=0
By setting f(a,b,c)=1f(a, b, c)=1, we find p2q+p=0p^{2}-q+p=0.
By setting f(a,b,c)=bf(a, b, c)=b, we find pq3r+q=0p q-3 r+q=0.
(Here we use the general identity cyc(a2b+ab2)=pq3r\sum_{\text{cyc}}\left(a^{2} b+a b^{2}\right)=p q-3 r.)
By setting f(a,b,c)=c2f(a, b, c)=c^{2}, we find (q22pr)+pr+(p33pq+3r)=0\left(q^{2}-2 p r\right)+p r+\left(p^{3}-3 p q+3 r\right)=0.
By elimination of q=p2+pq=p^{2}+p and r=pq+q3=p(p+1)23r=\frac{p q+q}{3}=\frac{p(p+1)^{2}}{3} we find
(p2+p)2pp(p+1)23+p33p(p2+p)+p(p+1)2=0 \left(p^{2}+p\right)^{2}-p \cdot \frac{p(p+1)^{2}}{3}+p^{3}-3 p\left(p^{2}+p\right)+p(p+1)^{2}=0
which is equivalent to
0=2p4+p3p2+3p=p(2p+3)(p2p+1) 0=2 p^{4}+p^{3}-p^{2}+3 p=p(2 p+3)\left(p^{2}-p+1\right)
Now we see that either p=0p=0 or p=32p=-\frac{3}{2}.
In the case p=0p=0 we find that also q=0q=0 and r=0r=0, whence a=b=c=0a=b=c=0. In the case p=32p=-\frac{3}{2} we find q=34q=\frac{3}{4} and r=18r=-\frac{1}{8}, hence a,b,ca, b, c are the solutions to the cubic equation
0=x3+32x2+34x+18=(x+12)3 0=x^{3}+\frac{3}{2} x^{2}+\frac{3}{4} x+\frac{1}{8}=\left(x+\frac{1}{2}\right)^{3}
This gives a=b=c=12a=b=c=-\frac{1}{2}.

Solution:
As in the first solution, we prove that as soon as one of the variables is 0, all three variables have to be 0. Obviously, the triple (0,0,0)(0,0,0) is a solution. From now on, we may therefore assume that all three variables are non-zero.
We can rewrite the system of equations as
c=a(a+b)a=b(b+c)b=c(c+a) \begin{aligned} & -c=a(a+b) \\ & -a=b(b+c) \\ & -b=c(c+a) \end{aligned}
Multiplying these equations and dividing by abc0a b c \neq 0 gives
(a+b)(b+c)(c+a)=1 (a+b)(b+c)(c+a)=-1
On the other hand by summing up the equations we get
abc=a2+b2+c2+ab+bc+ac -a-b-c=a^{2}+b^{2}+c^{2}+a b+b c+a c
Now we substitute
x=a+b,y=b+c,z=c+a x=a+b, \quad y=b+c, \quad z=c+a
which transforms equation (4) and (5) into
xyz=1,x+y+z2=x2+y2+z22 x y z=-1, \quad-\frac{x+y+z}{2}=\frac{x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}}{2}
Now we calculate
3(x2+y2+z2)(x+y+z)2x+y+z2=(x2+y2+z2)232{x2y2z23}2=9 3\left(x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}\right) \geqslant(|x|+|y|+|z|)^{2} \geqslant|x+y+z|^{2}=\left(x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}\right)^{2} \geqslant 3^{2}\{\sqrt[3]{x^{2} y^{2} z^{2}}\}^{2}=9
where the first inequality comes from Cauchy-Schwarz (or QM-AM), the second one from the triangle inequality and the last one from AM-GM. The equalities come from (6).
Now, if we denote S=x2+y2+z2S=x^{2}+y^{2}+z^{2}, we have the inequalities
3SS29 3 S \geqslant S^{2} \geqslant 9
and because we trivially have S>0S>0 (note that S=0S=0 would imply x=y=z=0x=y=z=0 and hence a=b=c=0a=b=c=0, which has already been excluded), we can split it into the inequalities 3S3 \geqslant S and S3S \geqslant 3, so we have equality and actually all the inequalities are equalities.
The case of equality for the triangle equality is when all nonzero x,y,zx, y, z have the same sign and, in view of equations 6, the only possibility is that x,y,zx, y, z are all negative. Moreover, in the last inequality, we have equality exactly when x2=y2=z2x^{2}=y^{2}=z^{2} and, because they have the same sign, it means x=y=zx=y=z. Finally, in view of xyz=1x y z=-1, the only possibility is x=y=z=1x=y=z=-1. By definition of x,y,zx, y, z the values of a,b,ca, b, c are then
(a,b,c)=(12,12,12) (a, b, c)=\left(\frac{-1}{2}, \frac{-1}{2}, \frac{-1}{2}\right)
and this is indeed a solution.

The solutions are
(a,b,c){(0,0,0),(12,12,12)}(a, b, c) \in\left\{(0,0,0),\left(-\frac{1}{2},-\frac{1}{2},-\frac{1}{2}\right)\right\}

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