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European Mathematical Cup

Geometry Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it North Macedonia

Let △ABC\triangle ABC be a triangle. The external and internal angle bisectors of ∠CAB\angle CAB intersect side BCBC at DD and EE, respectively. Let FF be a point on the segment BCBC. The circumcircle of triangle △ADF\triangle ADF intersects ABAB and ACAC at II and JJ, respectively. Let NN be the mid-point of IJIJ and HH the foot of EE on DNDN. Prove that EE is the incenter of triangle △AHF\triangle AHF.

Solution

Denote by ω\omega the circumcircle of △AHF\triangle AHF.
The key idea in the problem is to introduce a new point XX which we define as the second intersection of DNDN and ω\omega. We now note that the ∠JAD=∠CAD=90∘±α2\angle JAD = \angle CAD = 90^\circ \pm \frac{\alpha}{2} where α=∠CAB\alpha = \angle CAB. As ADAD is an external bisector of ∠CAB\angle CAB.
The ±\pm signs depend on the picture and student shouldn't be deduced any points for not noticing this.
Hence we have either ∠JAD=∠BAD\angle JAD = \angle BAD or ∠JAD+∠IAD=180∘\angle JAD + \angle IAD = 180^\circ so in both cases DI=DJDI = DJ.
Now as NN is midpoint of IJIJ this means that DNDN is bisector of IJIJ and hence passes through the centre of the. This shows that DXDX is a diameter of ω\omega and EH∥IJEH \parallel IJ.
We also notice that ∠EAD=90∘\angle EAD = 90^\circ as angle between bisectors and ∠XAD=90∘\angle XAD = 90^\circ as DXDX is a diameter. Hence X,A,EX, A, E are collinear.
Now this gives us ∠DHE=∠XHE=90∘\angle DHE = \angle XHE = 90^\circ and ∠XFE=∠DFE=90∘\angle XFE = \angle DFE = 90^\circ as DXDX is a diameter of ω\omega and finally again ∠EAD=90∘\angle EAD = 90^\circ. All this gives us that quadrilaterals XFEHXFEH and ADEHADEH are cyclic.
Final step is to use some angle chasing to get ∠AHE=∠ADH=∠AXF=∠EXF=∠EHF\angle AHE = \angle ADH = \angle AXF = \angle EXF = \angle EHF where first, second and fourth equalities are due to cyclicity of ADEHADEH, ADXFADXF and XFEHXFEH respectively. Also ∠DFH=∠EFH=∠EXH=∠AFD=∠AFE\angle DFH = \angle EFH = \angle EXH = \angle AFD = \angle AFE where the second and fourth equalities are due to cyclicity of XFEHXFEH and ADXFADXF. This shows EE is the incenter of △AFH\triangle AFH as desired.

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