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Problem 1911

National Olympiad second round; IMO P1/P4
Algebra Difficulty 7.1 Prove it Hong Kong competition problems · Hong Kong · 2016

Find the largest possible positive integer nn, so that there exist nn distinct positive real numbers x1,x2,,xnx_1, x_2, \dots, x_n satisfying the following inequality: for any 1i,jn1 \le i, j \le n,
(3xixj)(xi3xj)(1xixj)2. (3x_i - x_j)(x_i - 3x_j) \ge (1 - x_ix_j)^2.

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Official solution

The largest possible nn is 33.
Note that
(3xixj)(xi3xj)(1xixj)23xi210xixj+3xj212xixj+xi2xj23xi26xixj+3xj21+2xixj+xi2xj23(xixj)2(1+xixj)2xixj1+xixj13.(1) \begin{aligned} & (3x_i - x_j)(x_i - 3x_j) \ge (1 - x_ix_j)^2 \\ \Leftrightarrow & 3x_i^2 - 10x_ix_j + 3x_j^2 \ge 1 - 2x_ix_j + x_i^2x_j^2 \\ \Leftrightarrow & 3x_i^2 - 6x_ix_j + 3x_j^2 \ge 1 + 2x_ix_j + x_i^2x_j^2 \\ \Leftrightarrow & 3(x_i - x_j)^2 \ge (1 + x_ix_j)^2 \\ \Leftrightarrow & \left| \frac{x_i - x_j}{1 + x_ix_j} \right| \ge \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}}. \end{aligned} \quad (1)
WLOG, we may assume x1<x2<<xnx_1 < x_2 < \dots < x_n. For 1jn1 \le j \le n, we can find θjR\theta_j \in \mathbb{R} such that 0<θj<π20 < \theta_j < \frac{\pi}{2} and xj=tanθjx_j = \tan \theta_j. Now for 1i<jn1 \le i < j \le n, the inequality (1) is equivalent to
tan(θjθi)13, \tan(\theta_j - \theta_i) \ge \frac{1}{\sqrt{3}},
which means θjθiπ6\theta_j - \theta_i \ge \frac{\pi}{6}.
If n4n \ge 4, by the pigeonhole principle, there exists jj with 1j31 \le j \le 3 such that θj+1θj<π6\theta_{j+1} - \theta_j < \frac{\pi}{6}. This contradicts (1). Therefore, we must have n3n \le 3.

It is possible to have n=3n = 3. For example, we can take xj=tan(2j1)π12x_j = \tan \frac{(2j-1)\pi}{12} for j=1,2,3j = 1, 2, 3. Following the above arguments, we see that all inequalities are satisfied.

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