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Algebra Difficulty 6.9 National Olympiad Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Find the largest positive integer nn for which the inequality
a+b+cabc+1+abcn52 \frac{a+b+c}{a b c+1}+\sqrt[n]{a b c} \leq \frac{5}{2}
holds for all a,b,c[0,1]a, b, c \in[0,1]. Here abc1=abc\sqrt[1]{a b c}=a b c.

Solution

Solution:
Let nmaxn_{\max} be the sought largest value of nn, and let Ea,b,c(n)=a+b+cabc+1+abcnE_{a, b, c}(n)=\frac{a+b+c}{a b c+1}+\sqrt[n]{a b c}. Then Ea,b,c(m)Ea,b,c(n)=abcmabcnE_{a, b, c}(m)-E_{a, b, c}(n)=\sqrt[m]{a b c}-\sqrt[n]{a b c} and since abc1a b c \leq 1 we clearly have Ea,b,c(m)Ea,b,c(n)E_{a, b, c}(m) \geq E_{a, b, c}(n) for mnm \geq n. So if Ea,b,c(n)52E_{a, b, c}(n) \geq \frac{5}{2} for some choice of a,b,c[0,1]a, b, c \in[0,1], it must be nmaxnn_{\max} \leq n. We use this remark to determine the upper bound nmax3n_{\max} \leq 3 by plugging some particular values of a,b,ca, b, c into the given inequality as follows:
For (a,b,c)=(1,1,c), c[0,1], inequality (1) implies c+2c+1+cn521c+1+cn32. \text{For }(a, b, c)=(1,1, c),\ c \in[0,1],\ \text{inequality (1) implies } \frac{c+2}{c+1}+\sqrt[n]{c} \leq \frac{5}{2} \Leftrightarrow \frac{1}{c+1}+\sqrt[n]{c} \leq \frac{3}{2}.
Obviously, every x[0,1]x \in[0, 1] is written as cn\sqrt[n]{c} for some c[0,1]c \in[0, 1]. So the last inequality is equivalent to:
1xn+1+x322+2xn+1+2x3xn+33xn+12xn+1+2x2xn(1x)+(1x)+(x1)(xn1++x)0(1x)[2xn+1(xn1+xn2++x)]0, x[0,1] \begin{aligned} & \frac{1}{x^{n}+1}+x \leq \frac{3}{2} \Leftrightarrow 2+2 x^{n+1}+2 x \leq 3 x^{n}+3 \Leftrightarrow 3 x^{n}+1 \geq 2 x^{n+1}+2 x \\ \Leftrightarrow & 2 x^{n}(1-x)+(1-x)+(x-1)\left(x^{n-1}+\cdots+x\right) \geq 0 \\ \Leftrightarrow & (1-x)\left[2 x^{n}+1-\left(x^{n-1}+x^{n-2}+\ldots+x\right)\right] \geq 0,\ \forall x \in[0,1] \end{aligned}
For n=4n=4, the left hand side of the above becomes (1x)(2x4+1x3x2x)=(1x)(x1)(2x3+x21)=(1x)2(2x3+x21)(1-x)\left(2 x^{4}+1-x^{3}-x^{2}-x\right)=(1-x)(x-1)\left(2 x^{3}+x^{2}-1\right)=-(1-x)^{2}\left(2 x^{3}+x^{2}-1\right) which for x=0.9x=0.9 is negative. Thus, nmax3n_{\max} \leq 3 as claimed.

Now, we shall prove that for n=3n=3 inequality (1) holds for all a,b,c[0,1]a, b, c \in[0,1], and this would mean nmax=3n_{\max}=3. We shall use the following Lemma:

Lemma. For all a,b,c[0,1]:a+b+cabc+2a, b, c \in[0, 1]: a+b+c \leq a b c+2.

Proof of the Lemma: The required result comes by adding the following two inequalities side by side
0(a1)(b1)a+bab+1a+bab10(ab1)(c1)ab+cabc+1 \begin{aligned} & 0 \leq(a-1)(b-1) \Leftrightarrow a+b \leq a b+1 \Leftrightarrow a+b-a b \leq 1 \\ & 0 \leq(a b-1)(c-1) \Leftrightarrow a b+c \leq a b c+1 \end{aligned}
Because of the Lemma, our inequality (1) for n=3n=3 will be proved if the following weaker inequality is proved for all a,b,c[0,1]a, b, c \in[0,1]:
abc+2abc+1+abc3521abc+1+abc332 \frac{a b c+2}{a b c+1}+\sqrt[3]{a b c} \leq \frac{5}{2} \Leftrightarrow \frac{1}{a b c+1}+\sqrt[3]{a b c} \leq \frac{3}{2}
Denoting abc3=y[0,1]\sqrt[3]{a b c}=y \in[0, 1], this inequality becomes:
1y3+1+y322+2y4+2y3y3+32y4+3y32y+102y3(1y)+(y1)y(y+1)+(1y)0(1y)(2y3+1y2y)0 \begin{aligned} & \frac{1}{y^{3}+1}+y \leq \frac{3}{2} \Leftrightarrow 2+2 y^{4}+2 y \leq 3 y^{3}+3 \Leftrightarrow -2 y^{4}+3 y^{3}-2 y+1 \geq 0 \\ \Leftrightarrow & 2 y^{3}(1-y)+(y-1) y(y+1)+(1-y) \geq 0 \Leftrightarrow (1-y)\left(2 y^{3}+1-y^{2}-y\right) \geq 0 \end{aligned}
The last inequality is obvious because 1y01-y \geq 0 and 2y3+1y2y=y3+(y1)2(y+1)02 y^{3}+1-y^{2}-y=y^{3}+(y-1)^{2}(y+1) \geq 0.

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