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Algebra Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it Turkey

Find the greatest constant MM such that
a2+b2+c2+3abcM(ab+bc+ca) a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + 3abc \geq M(ab + bc + ca)
for all nonnegative real numbers a,b,ca, b, c satisfying a+b+c=4a + b + c = 4.

Solution

Letting a=0a = 0 and b=c=2b = c = 2 we obtain 2M2 \ge M. We will show that M=2M = 2 works.

Without loss of generality we may assume that max{a,b,c}=c\max\{a, b, c\} = c. Let x=a+bx = a + b and y=aby = ab. We have ca+b+c3=43c \ge \frac{a+b+c}{3} = \frac{4}{3} and hence x=a+b83x = a+b \le \frac{8}{3}.

Then
a2+b2+c2+3abc2(ab+bc+ca)    x22y+(4x)2+3y(4x)2(y+x(4x))    4(x2)2+y(83x)0 a^2 + b^2 + c^2 + 3abc \ge 2(ab + bc + ca) \iff x^2 - 2y + (4-x)^2 + 3y(4-x) \ge 2(y+x(4-x)) \iff 4(x-2)^2 + y(8-3x) \ge 0
follows.

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