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Geometry Difficulty 8.1 Shortlist Find the answer

Let the circumcenter of triangle ABCABC be OO. HAH_A is the projection of AA onto BCBC. The extension of AOAO intersects the circumcircle of BOCBOC at AA'. The projections of AA' onto AB,ACAB, AC are D,ED,E, and OAO_A is the circumcentre of triangle DHAEDH_AE. Define HB,OB,HC,OCH_B, O_B, H_C, O_C similarly.
Prove: HAOA,HBOB,HCOCH_AO_A, H_BO_B, H_CO_C are concurrent

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Solution

Let the circumcenter of triangle ABCABC be OO. HAH_A is the projection of AA onto BCBC. The extension of AOAO intersects the circumcircle of BOC\triangle BOC at AA'. The projections of AA' onto ABAB and ACAC are DD and EE, respectively. OAO_A is the circumcenter of triangle DHAEDH_AE. Define HBH_B, OBO_B, HCH_C, and OCO_C similarly. We aim to prove that HAOAH_AO_A, HBOBH_BO_B, and HCOCH_CO_C are concurrent.

To prove this, we first establish that the concurrency point is the orthocenter of HAHBHC\triangle H_AH_BH_C. Let A0A_0 be the reflection of AA in BC\overline{BC}.

Claim: HAOAHBHC\overline{H_AO_A} \perp \overline{H_BH_C}.

Proof: Note that the circumcircles (BOC)\odot(BOC) and (BHC)\odot(BHC) are isogonal conjugates with respect to ABC\triangle ABC. Hence, {A0,A}\{A_0, A'\} is a pair of isogonal conjugates. Let A1A_1 and A2A_2 be the projections of A0A_0 onto lines AB\overline{AB} and AC\overline{AC}, respectively. Since isogonal conjugates share pedal circles, the points DD, EE, A1A_1, A2A_2, and HAH_A are concyclic. Note that HAH_A is also the circumcenter of AA1A2\triangle AA_1A_2, hence HAOAA1A2\overline{H_AO_A} \perp \overline{A_1A_2}. Clearly, HAHBHC\triangle H_AH_BH_C maps to A0A2A1\triangle A_0A_2A_1 under a homothety centered at AA. Therefore, HBHCA1A2\overline{H_BH_C} \parallel \overline{A_1A_2}, and we have HAOAHBHC\overline{H_AO_A} \perp \overline{H_BH_C}.

Thus, it is clear that HAOA\overline{H_AO_A}, HBOB\overline{H_BO_B}, and HCOC\overline{H_CO_C} concur at the orthocenter of HAHBHC\triangle H_AH_BH_C.

The answer is: \boxed{\text{The lines } H_AO_A, H_BO_B, \text{ and } H_CO_C \text{ are concurrent at the orthocenter of } \triangle H_AH_BH_C.}

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