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Determine the greatest possible value of i=110cos(3xi)\sum_{i=1}^{10} \cos(3x_i) for real numbers x1,x2,,x10x_1,x_2,\dots,x_{10} satisfying i=110cos(xi)=0\sum_{i=1}^{10} \cos(x_i) = 0.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

The maximum value is 480/49480/49. Since cos(3xi)=4cos(xi)33cos(xi)\cos(3x_i) = 4 \cos(x_i)^3 - 3 \cos(x_i), it is equivalent to maximize 4i=110yi34 \sum_{i=1}^{10} y_i^3 for y1,,y10[1,1]y_1,\dots,y_{10} \in [-1,1] with i=110yi=0\sum_{i=1}^{10} y_i = 0; note that this domain is compact, so the maximum value is guaranteed to exist. For convenience, we establish something slightly stronger: we maximize 4i=1nyi34 \sum_{i=1}^{n} y_i^3 for y1,,yn[1,1]y_1,\dots,y_{n} \in [-1,1] with i=1nyi=0\sum_{i=1}^{n} y_i = 0, where nn may be any even nonnegative integer up to 1010, and show that the maximum is achieved when n=10n=10. We first study the effect of varying yiy_i and yjy_j while fixing their sum. If that sum is ss, then the function yy3+(sy)3y \mapsto y^3 + (s-y)^3 has constant second derivative 6s6s, so it is either everywhere convex or everywhere concave. Consequently, if (y1,,yn)(y_1,\dots,y_{n}) achieves the maximum, then for any two indices i<ji<j, at least one of the following must be true: one of yiy_i, yjy_j is extremal (i.e., equal to 11 or 1-1); yi=yj<0y_i = y_j < 0 (in which case s<0s<0 and the local maximum is achieved above); yi=yjy_i = -y_j (in which case s=0s=0 above). In the third case, we may discard yiy_i and yjy_j and achieve a case with smaller nn; we may thus assume that this does not occur. In this case, all of the non-extremal values are equal to some common value y<0y < 0, and moreover we cannot have both 1 and -1. We cannot omit 1, as otherwise the condition i=1nyi=0\sum_{i=1}^{n} y_i = 0 cannot be achieved; we must thus have only the terms 1 and yy, occurring with some positive multiplicities aa and bb adding up to nn. Since a+b=na+b=n and a+by=0a+by = 0, we can solve for yy to obtain y=a/by = -a/b; we then have 4i=1nyi3=a+by3=4a(1a2b2). 4\sum_{i=1}^n y_i^3 = a + by^3 = 4a \left( 1 - \frac{a^2}{b^2} \right). Since y>1y > -1, we must have a<ba < b. For fixed aa, the target function increases as bb increases, so the optimal case must occur when a+b=10a+b=10. The possible pairs (a,b)(a,b) at this point are (1,9),(2,8),(3,7),(4,6); (1,9), (2,8), (3,7), (4,6); computing the target function for these values yields respectively 329,152,48049,809, \frac{32}{9}, \frac{15}{2}, \frac{480}{49}, \frac{80}{9}, yielding 480/49480/49 as the maximum value.

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