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Algebra Difficulty 7.3 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Example 3.2.9 Let a1,a2,,an>0a_{1}, a_{2}, \cdots, a_{n}>0, and satisfy a1+a2++an=1a1+1a2++1ana_{1}+a_{2}+\cdots+a_{n}=\frac{1}{a_{1}}+\frac{1}{a_{2}}+\cdots+\frac{1}{a_{n}}, prove: 1n1+a12+1n1+a22++1n1+an21\frac{1}{n-1+a_{1}^{2}}+\frac{1}{n-1+a_{2}^{2}}+\cdots+\frac{1}{n-1+a_{n}^{2}} \leq 1 \quad (Pham Kim Hung)

Solution

Prove: The inequality can be rewritten as follows
i=1n(1n1+ai21n)0\sum_{i=1}^{n}\left(\frac{1}{n-1+a_{i}^{2}}-\frac{1}{n}\right) \leq 0

or equivalently,
i=1nai21n1+ai20\sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{a_{i}^{2}-1}{n-1+a_{i}^{2}} \geq 0

Assuming a1a2ana_{1} \geq a_{2} \geq \cdots \geq a_{n}, according to the problem, we have
i=1nai21ai=0\sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{a_{i}^{2}-1}{a_{i}}=0

Moreover, note that
ain1+ai2ajn1+aj2=(n1aiaj)(aiaj)(n1+ai2)(n1+aj2)\frac{a_{i}}{n-1+a_{i}^{2}}-\frac{a_{j}}{n-1+a_{j}^{2}}=\frac{\left(n-1-a_{i} a_{j}\right)\left(a_{i}-a_{j}\right)}{\left(n-1+a_{i}^{2}\right)\left(n-1+a_{j}^{2}\right)}

Thus, when aiajn1a_{i} a_{j} \leq n-1 for iji \neq j, we have
i=1nai21n1+ai21n(i=1nai21ai)(i=1nain1+ai2)=0\sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{a_{i}^{2}-1}{n-1+a_{i}^{2}} \geq \frac{1}{n}\left(\sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{a_{i}^{2}-1}{a_{i}}\right)\left(\sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{a_{i}}{n-1+a_{i}^{2}}\right)=0

It remains to prove the case when a1a2n1a_{1} a_{2} \geq n-1. For n3n \geq 3, by the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we have
a12n1+a12+a22n1+a22(a1+a2)22(n1)+a12+a221i=1nai2n1+ai21i=1n1n1+ai21\frac{a_{1}^{2}}{n-1+a_{1}^{2}}+\frac{a_{2}^{2}}{n-1+a_{2}^{2}} \geq \frac{\left(a_{1}+a_{2}\right)^{2}}{2(n-1)+a_{1}^{2}+a_{2}^{2}} \geq 1 \Rightarrow \sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{a_{i}^{2}}{n-1+a_{i}^{2}} \geq 1 \Rightarrow \sum_{i=1}^{n} \frac{1}{n-1+a_{i}^{2}} \leq 1

For n=1n=1 and n=2n=2, the inequality becomes an equality. For n3n \geq 3, equality holds if and only if a1==an=1a_{1}=\cdots=a_{n}=1.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.