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Iranian Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 6.4 National Olympiad Prove it Iran

We call a sequence a0,…,a1389a_0, \ldots, a_{1389} of real numbers concave if for every 0<i<13890 < i < 1389 we have ai≥ai−1+ai+12a_i \ge \frac{a_{i-1} + a_{i+1}}{2}. Find the maximum number cc such that for every concave sequence of nonnegative numbers, we have
∑i=01389iai2≥c∑i=01389ai2 \sum_{i=0}^{1389} i a_i^2 \ge c \sum_{i=0}^{1389} a_i^2

Solution

First consider the concave sequence ai=(1389−i)da_i = (1389 - i)d, 0≤i≤13890 \le i \le 1389, d>0d > 0. Note that the maximum possible value of cc for this sequence is c0=∑i=01389iai2∑i=01389ai2=13892−5×13894×1389−2c_0 = \frac{\sum_{i=0}^{1389} i a_i^2}{\sum_{i=0}^{1389} a_i^2} = \frac{1389^2 - 5 \times 1389}{4 \times 1389 - 2}.

Now we claim that for every concave sequence aia_i, we have ∑i=01389iai2≥c0∑i=01389ai2\sum_{i=0}^{1389} i a_i^2 \ge c_0 \sum_{i=0}^{1389} a_i^2, and since we have the above equality, c0c_0 must be the answer.
Consider a concave sequence a0,a1,…,a1389a_0, a_1, \dots, a_{1389}, we define
bi=(1389−i)a⌊c0⌋1389−⌊c0⌋ b_i = (1389 - i) \frac{a_{\lfloor c_0 \rfloor}}{1389 - \lfloor c_0 \rfloor}
Indeed we are trying to make the sequence linear. Now we must prove that:
∑i=⌊c⌋1389(i−c)ai2≥∑i=0⌊c⌋(c−i)ai2 \sum_{i=\lfloor c \rfloor}^{1389} (i-c)a_i^2 \ge \sum_{i=0}^{\lfloor c \rfloor} (c-i)a_i^2
Considering the definition of bib_i and its linearity, and the fact that a⌊c0⌋=b⌊c0⌋a_{\lfloor c_0 \rfloor} = b_{\lfloor c_0 \rfloor}, a1389≥b1389a_{1389} \ge b_{1389}, easily it can be proved that if i≥⌊c0⌋i \ge \lfloor c_0 \rfloor then ai≥bia_i \ge b_i, and if i≤⌊c0⌋i \le \lfloor c_0 \rfloor then ai≤bia_i \le b_i. So we have:
∑i=⌊c0⌋1389(i−c0)ai2≥∑i=⌊c0⌋1389(i−c0)bi2≥∑i=0⌊c0⌋(c0−i)bi2≥∑i=0⌊c0⌋(c0−i)ai2 \sum_{i=\lfloor c_0 \rfloor}^{1389} (i - c_0)a_i^2 \ge \sum_{i=\lfloor c_0 \rfloor}^{1389} (i - c_0)b_i^2 \ge \sum_{i=0}^{\lfloor c_0 \rfloor} (c_0 - i)b_i^2 \ge \sum_{i=0}^{\lfloor c_0 \rfloor} (c_0 - i)a_i^2
So the desired cc equals to c0=13892−5×13894×1389−2c_0 = \frac{1389^2 - 5 \times 1389}{4 \times 1389 - 2}.

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