AlgebraDifficulty 7.6National Olympiad, round 2Prove itMiddle European Mathematical Olympiad (MEMO)
Problem: Determine all triples (a,b,c) of real numbers satisfying the system of equations a2+ab+c=0b2+bc+a=0c2+ca+b=0
Solution
Solution: If one of the numbers a,b and c 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). Now assume that a,b,c=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 a. Since b,c<0, it follows that b2+bc+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=−y and c=−z, where x,y,z>0. The original system transforms into x2+xy=zy2+yz=xz2+zx=y The system is cyclic, so we can assume that x⩽y and x⩽z. Now we have x2+xy=z⩾x⟹x+y⩾1y2+yz=x⩽y⟹y+z⩽1 From the previous two inequalities we conclude that x+y⩾1⩾y+z, i.e. x⩾z On the other hand x⩽z, so we get x=z. Now, from equation (1) it follows that x+y=1, while from equation (2) it follows that x=y2+yz=y2+yx=y(y+x)=y Thus x=y=z and from x+y=1 we see that x=y=z=1/2. We easily verify that (a,b,c)=(−21,−21,−21) is indeed a solution.
b. Exactly one of the numbers is negative. Without loss of generality we can assume that c is negative, while a and b are positive. From the second equation we conclude that b(b+c)=−a<0, thus b+c<0. The third equation yields c(a+c)=−b<0, thus a+c>0. Adding a+b to the first equation and cyclic permutation yields a+b+c=(1−a)(a+b)=(1−b)(b+c)=(1−c)(c+a) The last product is positive. This implies that 1−a>0 and 1−b<0 by our above considerations. Therefore 0<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 Our strategy will be to determine p,q and r by considering equations of the form cyc∑f(a,b,c)(a2+ab+c)=0 By setting f(a,b,c)=1, we find p2−q+p=0. By setting f(a,b,c)=b, we find pq−3r+q=0. (Here we use the general identity ∑cyc(a2b+ab2)=pq−3r.) By setting f(a,b,c)=c2, we find (q2−2pr)+pr+(p3−3pq+3r)=0. By elimination of q=p2+p and r=3pq+q=3p(p+1)2 we find (p2+p)2−p⋅3p(p+1)2+p3−3p(p2+p)+p(p+1)2=0 which is equivalent to 0=2p4+p3−p2+3p=p(2p+3)(p2−p+1) Now we see that either p=0 or p=−23. In the case p=0 we find that also q=0 and r=0, whence a=b=c=0. In the case p=−23 we find q=43 and r=−81, hence a,b,c are the solutions to the cubic equation 0=x3+23x2+43x+81=(x+21)3 This gives a=b=c=−21.
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) 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) Multiplying these equations and dividing by abc=0 gives (a+b)(b+c)(c+a)=−1 On the other hand by summing up the equations we get −a−b−c=a2+b2+c2+ab+bc+ac Now we substitute x=a+b,y=b+c,z=c+a which transforms equation (4) and (5) into xyz=−1,−2x+y+z=2x2+y2+z2 Now we calculate 3(x2+y2+z2)⩾(∣x∣+∣y∣+∣z∣)2⩾∣x+y+z∣2=(x2+y2+z2)2⩾32{3x2y2z2}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+z2, we have the inequalities 3S⩾S2⩾9 and because we trivially have S>0 (note that S=0 would imply x=y=z=0 and hence a=b=c=0, which has already been excluded), we can split it into the inequalities 3⩾S and S⩾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,z have the same sign and, in view of equations 6, the only possibility is that x,y,z are all negative. Moreover, in the last inequality, we have equality exactly when x2=y2=z2 and, because they have the same sign, it means x=y=z. Finally, in view of xyz=−1, the only possibility is x=y=z=−1. By definition of x,y,z the values of a,b,c are then (a,b,c)=(2−1,2−1,2−1) and this is indeed a solution.
The solutions are (a,b,c)∈{(0,0,0),(−21,−21,−21)}
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