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Algebra Difficulty 8.4 Shortlist Prove it IMO

Let R>0\mathbb{R}_{>0} be the set of positive real numbers. Determine all functions f:R>0R>0f: \mathbb{R}_{>0} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_{>0} such that
x(f(x)+f(y))(f(f(x))+y)f(y) x(f(x)+f(y)) \geqslant (f(f(x))+y) f(y)
for every x,yR>0x, y \in \mathbb{R}_{>0}.

Solutions — 2

Solution 1

Answer: All functions f(x)=cxf(x)=\frac{c}{x} for some c>0c>0.

Solution 1. Let f:R>0R>0f: \mathbb{R}_{>0} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_{>0} be a function that satisfies the inequality of the problem statement. We will write fk(x)=f(f(f(x)))f^{k}(x)=f(f(\cdots f(x) \cdots)) for the composition of ff with itself kk times, with the convention that f0(x)=xf^{0}(x)=x. Substituting y=xy=x gives
xf2(x) x \geqslant f^{2}(x)
Substituting x=f(y)x=f(y) instead leads to f(y)+f2(y)y+f3(y)f(y)+f^{2}(y) \geqslant y+f^{3}(y), or equivalently
f(y)f3(y)yf2(y) f(y)-f^{3}(y) \geqslant y-f^{2}(y)
We can generalise this inequality. If we replace yy by fn1(y)f^{n-1}(y) in the above inequality, we get
fn(y)fn+2(y)fn1(y)fn+1(y) f^{n}(y)-f^{n+2}(y) \geqslant f^{n-1}(y)-f^{n+1}(y)
for every yR>0y \in \mathbb{R}_{>0} and for every integer n1n \geqslant 1. In particular, fn(y)fn+2(y)yf2(y)0f^{n}(y)-f^{n+2}(y) \geqslant y-f^{2}(y) \geqslant 0 for every n1n \geqslant 1. Hereafter consider even integers n=2mn=2 m. Observe that
yf2m(y)=i=0m1(f2i(y)f2i+2(y))m(yf2(y)). y-f^{2 m}(y)=\sum_{i=0}^{m-1}\left(f^{2 i}(y)-f^{2 i+2}(y)\right) \geqslant m\left(y-f^{2}(y)\right) .
Since ff takes positive values, it holds that yf2m(y)<yy-f^{2 m}(y)<y for every m1m \geqslant 1. So, we have proved that y>m(yf2(y))y>m\left(y-f^{2}(y)\right) for every yR>0y \in \mathbb{R}_{>0} and every m1m \geqslant 1. Since yf2(y)0y-f^{2}(y) \geqslant 0, this holds if only if
f2(y)=y f^{2}(y)=y
for every yR>0y \in \mathbb{R}_{>0}. The original inequality becomes
xf(x)yf(y) x f(x) \geqslant y f(y)
for every x,yR>0x, y \in \mathbb{R}_{>0}. Hence, xf(x)x f(x) is constant. We conclude that f(x)=c/xf(x)=c / x for some c>0c>0.
We now check that all the functions of the form f(x)=c/xf(x)=c / x are indeed solutions of the original problem. First, note that all these functions satisfy f(f(x))=c/(c/x)=xf(f(x))=c /(c / x)=x. So it's sufficient to check that xf(x)yf(y)x f(x) \geqslant y f(y), which is true since ccc \geqslant c.

Solution 2

Let f:R>0R>0f: \mathbb{R}_{>0} \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_{>0} be a function that satisfies the inequality of the problem statement. As in Solution 1, we prove that
fn(y)fn+2(y) f^{n}(y) \geqslant f^{n+2}(y)
for every yR>0y \in \mathbb{R}_{>0} and every n0n \geqslant 0. Since ff takes positive values, this implies that
yf(y)f(y)f2(y)f2(y)f3(y) y f(y) \geqslant f(y) f^{2}(y) \geqslant f^{2}(y) f^{3}(y) \geqslant \cdots
In other words, yf(y)fn(y)fn+1(y)y f(y) \geqslant f^{n}(y) f^{n+1}(y) for every yR>0y \in \mathbb{R}_{>0} and every n1n \geqslant 1.
We replace xx by fn(x)f^{n}(x) in the original inequality and get
fn(x)fn+2(x)yf(y)fn(x)fn+1(x)f(y) f^{n}(x)-f^{n+2}(x) \geqslant \frac{y f(y)-f^{n}(x) f^{n+1}(x)}{f(y)}
Using that xf(x)fn(x)fn+1(x)x f(x) \geqslant f^{n}(x) f^{n+1}(x), we obtain
fn(x)fn+2(x)yf(y)xf(x)f(y) f^{n}(x)-f^{n+2}(x) \geqslant \frac{y f(y)-x f(x)}{f(y)}
for every n0n \geqslant 0. The same trick as in Solution 1 gives
x>xf2m(x)=i=0m1(f2i(x)f2i+2(x))myf(y)xf(x)f(y) x>x-f^{2 m}(x)=\sum_{i=0}^{m-1}\left(f^{2 i}(x)-f^{2 i+2}(x)\right) \geqslant m \cdot \frac{y f(y)-x f(x)}{f(y)}
for every x,yR>0x, y \in \mathbb{R}_{>0} and every m1m \geqslant 1. Possibly permuting xx and yy, we may assume that yf(y)xf(x)0y f(y)-x f(x) \geqslant 0 then the above inequality implies xf(x)=yf(y)x f(x)=y f(y). We conclude as in Solution 1.

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