AlgebraDifficulty 7.0National olympiad, round 2Find the answer
Find all triples (x,y,z) of real (but not necessarily positive) numbers that satisfy
3(x2+y2+z2)x2y2+y2z2+z2x2=1=xyz(x+y+z)3.
Solution
We will show that for real numbers x,y, and z that satisfy the first condition, the following inequality holds:
x2y2+y2z2+z2x2≥xyz(x+y+z)3.
The solutions we are looking for are thus the equality cases of this inequality. Let a,b, and c be real numbers. It holds that (a−b)2≥0, so 2a2+b2≥ab with equality if and only if a=b. We do this analogously for b and c and for c and a, so that adding them up we get
a2+b2+c2≥ab+bc+ca
with equality if and only if a=b=c. If we apply this to (xy,yz,zx), we find that
x2y2+y2z2+z2x2≥xy2z+yz2x+zx2y=xyz(x+y+z)
with equality if and only if xy=yz=zx. By applying it to (x,y,z), we get x2+y2+z2≥xy+yz+zx, so according to the first condition,
with equality if and only if x=y=z. We now want to combine these two inequalities,
x2y2+y2z2+z2x2≥xyz(x+y+z)
and
1≥(x+y+z)2
with each other. For this, we first multiply (3) by the non-negative factor x2y2+y2z2+z2x2; then we get
(x2y2+y2z2+z2x2)⋅1≥(x2y2+y2z2+z2x2)⋅(x+y+z)2
with equality if and only if x=y=z or x2y2+y2z2+z2x2=0. Further, multiplying (2) by the non-negative factor (x+y+z)2, we get
(x2y2+y2z2+z2x2)⋅(x+y+z)2≥xyz(x+y+z)⋅(x+y+z)2
with equality if and only if xy=yz=zx or x+y+z=0. Altogether, we find (x2y2+y2z2+z2x2)⋅1≥(x2y2+y2z2+z2x2)⋅(x+y+z)2≥xyz(x+y+z)⋅(x+y+z)2, or in other words (1), with equality if and only if
(x=y=z or x2y2+y2z2+z2x2=0) and (xy=yz=zx or x+y+z=0).
Now the second equation says that equality must hold here, so we are in the equality case just described. Additionally, the first condition still states that 3(x2+y2+z2)=1:
3(x2+y2+z2)=1x=y=z or xy=yz=zx or x+y+y2z2+z2x2=0xy=0
We distinguish two cases. First, assume x=y=z. Then xy=yz=zx is automatically satisfied. Using the first condition, we find that 1=3(x2+y2+z2)=9x2=(3x)2, so x=y=z=±31. Now assume that x2y2+y2z2+z2x2=0; then each of the terms must be zero, so xy=yz=zx=0, so xy=yz=zx is also satisfied. From xy=0 it follows that (without loss of generality) x=0. From yz=0 it also follows that (without loss of generality) y=0. Thus we find the solutions (0,0,±313) and also (0,±313,0) and (±313,0,0).
Remark. If you have proven (2) and (3), you can also find (1) by multiplying (3) by xyz(x+y+z). For this, you need to show that xyz(x+y+z) is non-negative. We know from the second condition in the problem that xyz(x+y+z)3 is equal to a sum of squares and is therefore non-negative. If x+y+z=0, it follows that xyz(x+y+z)≥0. If x+y+z=0, then xyz(x+y+z)=0. So in both cases, xyz(x+y+z)≥0. The equality case for this method is:
3(x2+y2+z2)=1xy=yz=zxx=y=zorxyz(x+y+z)=0.
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