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Algebra Difficulty 7.1 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Find all real numbers x,y,z1x,y,z\geq 1 satisfying min(x+xyz,y+xyz,z+xyz)=x1+y1+z1.\min(\sqrt{x+xyz},\sqrt{y+xyz},\sqrt{z+xyz})=\sqrt{x-1}+\sqrt{y-1}+\sqrt{z-1}.

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

Solution

The key Lemma is: a1+b1ab\sqrt{a-1}+\sqrt{b-1} \le \sqrt{ab} for all a,b1a,b \ge 1 . Equality holds when (a1)(b1)=1(a-1)(b-1)=1 .
This is proven easily. a1+b1=a11+1b1(a1+1)(b1+1)=ab\sqrt{a-1}+\sqrt{b-1} = \sqrt{a-1}\sqrt{1}+\sqrt{1}\sqrt{b-1} \le \sqrt{(a-1+1)(b-1+1)} = \sqrt{ab} by Cauchy.
Equality then holds when a1=1b1    (a1)(b1)=1a-1 =\frac{1}{b-1} \implies (a-1)(b-1) = 1 .
Now assume that x=min(x,y,z)x = \min(x,y,z) . Now note that, by the Lemma,
x1+y1+z1x1+yzx(yz+1)=xyz+x\sqrt{x-1}+\sqrt{y-1}+\sqrt{z-1} \le \sqrt{x-1} + \sqrt{yz} \le \sqrt{x(yz+1)} = \sqrt{xyz+x} . So equality must hold in order for the condition in the problem statement to be met.
So (y1)(z1)=1(y-1)(z-1) = 1 and (x1)(yz)=1(x-1)(yz) = 1 . If we let z=cz = c , then we can easily compute that y=cc1,x=c2+c1c2y = \frac{c}{c-1}, x = \frac{c^2+c-1}{c^2} .
Now it remains to check that xy,zx \le y, z .
But by easy computations, x=c2+c1c2c=z(c21)(c1)0x = \frac{c^2+c-1}{c^2} \le c = z \Longleftrightarrow (c^2-1)(c-1) \ge 0 , which is obvious.
Also x=c2+c1c2cc1=y2c1x = \frac{c^2+c-1}{c^2} \le \frac{c}{c-1} = y \Longleftrightarrow 2c \ge 1 , which is obvious, since c1c \ge 1 .
So all solutions are of the form (c2+c1c2,cc1,c)\boxed{\left(\frac{c^2+c-1}{c^2}, \frac{c}{c-1}, c\right)} , and all permutations for c>1c > 1 .
Remark: An alternative proof of the key Lemma is the following:
By AM-GM, (abab+1)+1=(a1)(b1)+12(a1)(b1)(ab-a-b+1)+1 = (a-1)(b-1) + 1 \ge 2\sqrt{(a-1)(b-1)} ab(a1)+(b1)+2(a1)(b1)ab\ge (a-1)+(b-1)+2\sqrt{(a-1)(b-1)} . Now taking the square root of both sides gives the desired. Equality holds when (a1)(b1)=1(a-1)(b-1) = 1 .

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