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Balkan Mathematical Olympiad

Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Prove it JBMO

Problem:
Prove that for all non-negative real numbers x,y,zx, y, z, not all equal to 00, the following inequality holds
2x2−x+y+zx+y2+z2+2y2+x−y+zx2+y+z2+2z2+x+y−zx2+y2+z⩾3 \frac{2x^{2}-x+y+z}{x+y^{2}+z^{2}}+\frac{2y^{2}+x-y+z}{x^{2}+y+z^{2}}+\frac{2z^{2}+x+y-z}{x^{2}+y^{2}+z} \geqslant 3
Determine all the triples (x,y,z)(x, y, z) for which the equality holds.

Solution

Solution:
Let us first write the expression LL on the left hand side in the following way
L=(2x2−x+y+zx+y2+z2+2)+(2y2+x−y+zx2+y+z2+2)+(2z2+x+y−zx2+y2+z+2)−6=(2x2+2y2+2z2+x+y+z)(1x+y2+z2+1x2+y+z2+1x2+y2+z)−6 \begin{aligned} L & = \left(\frac{2x^{2}-x+y+z}{x+y^{2}+z^{2}} + 2\right) + \left(\frac{2y^{2}+x-y+z}{x^{2}+y+z^{2}} + 2\right) + \left(\frac{2z^{2}+x+y-z}{x^{2}+y^{2}+z} + 2\right) - 6 \\ & = \left(2x^{2} + 2y^{2} + 2z^{2} + x + y + z\right)\left(\frac{1}{x+y^{2}+z^{2}} + \frac{1}{x^{2}+y+z^{2}} + \frac{1}{x^{2}+y^{2}+z}\right) - 6 \end{aligned}
If we introduce the notation A=x+y2+z2A = x + y^{2} + z^{2}, B=x2+y+z2B = x^{2} + y + z^{2}, C=x2+y2+zC = x^{2} + y^{2} + z, then the previous relation becomes
L=(A+B+C)(1A+1B+1C)−6 L = (A + B + C)\left(\frac{1}{A} + \frac{1}{B} + \frac{1}{C}\right) - 6
Using the arithmetic-harmonic mean inequality or Cauchy-Schwarz inequality for positive real numbers A,B,CA, B, C, we easily obtain
(A+B+C)(1A+1B+1C)⩾9 (A + B + C)\left(\frac{1}{A} + \frac{1}{B} + \frac{1}{C}\right) \geqslant 9
so it holds L⩾3L \geqslant 3.

The equality occurs if and only if A=B=CA = B = C, which is equivalent to the system of equations
x2−y2=x−y,y2−z2=y−z,x2−z2=x−z x^{2} - y^{2} = x - y, \quad y^{2} - z^{2} = y - z, \quad x^{2} - z^{2} = x - z
It follows easily that the only solutions of this system are
(x,y,z)∈{(t,t,t)∣t>0}∪{(t,t,1−t)∣t∈[0,1]}∪{(t,1−t,t)∣t∈[0,1]}∪{(1−t,t,t)∣t∈[0,1]}(x, y, z) \in \{(t, t, t) \mid t > 0\} \cup \{(t, t, 1-t) \mid t \in [0,1]\} \cup \{(t, 1-t, t) \mid t \in [0,1]\} \cup \{(1-t, t, t) \mid t \in [0,1]\}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.