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Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it China

There are 2n2n real numbers a1,a2,,an,r1,r2,,rna_1, a_2, \dots, a_n, r_1, r_2, \dots, r_n satisfying a1a2ana_1 \le a_2 \le \dots \le a_n and 0r1r2rn0 \le r_1 \le r_2 \le \dots \le r_n. Prove that i=1nj=1naiajmin(ri,rj)0\sum_{i=1}^n \sum_{j=1}^n a_i a_j \min(r_i, r_j) \ge 0.

Solution

Since
i=1nj=1naiajmin(ri,rj)=j=1na1ajmin(r1,rj)+j=1na2ajmin(r2,rj)++j=1nakajmin(rk,rj)++j=1nanajmin(rn,rj), \sum_{i=1}^{n} \sum_{j=1}^{n} a_i a_j \min(r_i, r_j) = \sum_{j=1}^{n} a_1 a_j \min(r_1, r_j) + \sum_{j=1}^{n} a_2 a_j \min(r_2, r_j) \\ + \dots + \sum_{j=1}^{n} a_k a_j \min(r_k, r_j) + \dots \\ + \sum_{j=1}^{n} a_n a_j \min(r_n, r_j),
its kk-th term is
j=1nakajmin(rk,rj)=aka1r1+aka2r2++akakrk+akak+1rk++akanrn \sum_{j=1}^{n} a_k a_j \min(r_k, r_j) = a_k a_1 r_1 + a_k a_2 r_2 + \dots + a_k a_k r_k \\ + a_k a_{k+1} r_k + \dots + a_k a_n r_n
which is the sum of elements of the kk-th row of A1A_1, k=1,2,,nk = 1, 2, \dots, n.
Therefore, i=1nj=1naiajmin(ri,rj)\sum_{i=1}^n \sum_{j=1}^n a_i a_j \min(r_i, r_j) is the sum of all elements of A1A_1.

On the other hand, the summation can also be done as follows: Take the elements of first column and the first row of A1A_1, sum up; denote the rest (n1)×(n1)(n-1) \times (n-1) element by matrix A2A_2, then take the first column and the first row of A2A_2, sum up, denote the rest by matrix A3,A_3, \dots, so we get
i=1nj=1naiajmin(ri,rj)=k=1nrk(ak2+2ak(ak+1+ak+2++an))=k=1nrk((ak+i=k+1nai)2(i=k+1nai)2)=k=1nrk((i=knai)2(i=k+1nai)2)=r1(i=1nai)2+r2(i=2nai)2+r3(i=3nai)2++rn(i=nnai)2r1(i=2nai)2r2(i=3nai)2rn1(i=nnai)2=k=1n(rkrk1)(i=knai)20 \begin{align*} \sum_{i=1}^{n} \sum_{j=1}^{n} a_i a_j \min(r_i, r_j) &= \sum_{k=1}^{n} r_k (a_k^2 + 2a_k (a_{k+1} + a_{k+2} + \dots + a_n)) \\ &= \sum_{k=1}^{n} r_k \left( \left(a_k + \sum_{i=k+1}^{n} a_i\right)^2 - \left(\sum_{i=k+1}^{n} a_i\right)^2 \right) \\ &= \sum_{k=1}^{n} r_k \left( \left(\sum_{i=k}^{n} a_i\right)^2 - \left(\sum_{i=k+1}^{n} a_i\right)^2 \right) \\ &= r_1 \left(\sum_{i=1}^{n} a_i\right)^2 + r_2 \left(\sum_{i=2}^{n} a_i\right)^2 + r_3 \left(\sum_{i=3}^{n} a_i\right)^2 + \dots \\ &\quad + r_n \left(\sum_{i=n}^{n} a_i\right)^2 - r_1 \left(\sum_{i=2}^{n} a_i\right)^2 - r_2 \left(\sum_{i=3}^{n} a_i\right)^2 \\ &\quad - \dots - r_{n-1} \left(\sum_{i=n}^{n} a_i\right)^2 \\ &= \sum_{k=1}^{n} (r_k - r_{k-1}) \left(\sum_{i=k}^{n} a_i\right)^2 \ge 0 \end{align*}
(where r0=0r_0 = 0).

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