Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /448 of 520

Algebra Difficulty 7.4 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it

Let f:RR+f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}^+ be a continuous and periodic function. Prove that for all αR\alpha\in\mathbb{R} the following inequality holds:

0Tf(x)f(x+α)dxT\int_0^T\frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)}dx\ge T,

where TT is the period of f(x)f(x).

Solution

1. Given Information and Setup:
- Let f:RR+ f: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}^+ be a continuous and periodic function with period T T .
- We need to prove that for all αR \alpha \in \mathbb{R} , the inequality 0Tf(x)f(x+α)dxT \int_0^T \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} \, dx \ge T holds.

2. Using the Arithmetic Mean-Geometric Mean (AM-GM) Inequality:
- The AM-GM inequality states that for any non-negative functions g(x) g(x) over an interval [a,b][a, b],
1baabg(x)dxexp(1baablng(x)dx). \frac{1}{b-a} \int_a^b g(x) \, dx \ge \exp\left( \frac{1}{b-a} \int_a^b \ln g(x) \, dx \right).
- In our case, let g(x)=f(x)f(x+α) g(x) = \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} . Then,
1T0Tf(x)f(x+α)dxexp(1T0Tln(f(x)f(x+α))dx). \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} \, dx \ge \exp\left( \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \ln \left( \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} \right) \, dx \right).

3. Simplifying the Exponential Term:
- Notice that
ln(f(x)f(x+α))=lnf(x)lnf(x+α). \ln \left( \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} \right) = \ln f(x) - \ln f(x+\alpha).
- Therefore,
1T0Tln(f(x)f(x+α))dx=1T0Tlnf(x)dx1T0Tlnf(x+α)dx. \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \ln \left( \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} \right) \, dx = \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \ln f(x) \, dx - \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \ln f(x+\alpha) \, dx.

4. **Using the Periodicity of f f :**
- Since f f is periodic with period T T , the integral of lnf(x) \ln f(x) over one period is the same as the integral of lnf(x+α) \ln f(x+\alpha) over the same period:
0Tlnf(x)dx=0Tlnf(x+α)dx. \int_0^T \ln f(x) \, dx = \int_0^T \ln f(x+\alpha) \, dx.
- Thus,
1T0Tlnf(x)dx1T0Tlnf(x+α)dx=0. \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \ln f(x) \, dx - \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \ln f(x+\alpha) \, dx = 0.
- This implies that
exp(1T0Tln(f(x)f(x+α))dx)=exp(0)=1. \exp\left( \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \ln \left( \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} \right) \, dx \right) = \exp(0) = 1.

5. Applying the AM-GM Inequality:
- From the AM-GM inequality, we have
1T0Tf(x)f(x+α)dx1. \frac{1}{T} \int_0^T \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} \, dx \ge 1.
- Multiplying both sides by T T , we get
0Tf(x)f(x+α)dxT. \int_0^T \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} \, dx \ge T.

6. Equality Condition:
- Equality holds if and only if f(x)f(x+α) \frac{f(x)}{f(x+\alpha)} is constant for almost every x x . Given the continuity of f f , this implies f(x)=f(x+α) f(x) = f(x+\alpha) for all x x .

\blacksquare

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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