3

Let $x,y,z\ge0$ satisfy $\max\left \{ x,y,z \right \}\ge 1$. Prove that $$x^3+y^3+z^3+(x+y+z-1)^2\ge1+3xyz$$

My attempts:

From the condition we can deduce $x+y+z\ge 1$

The inequality can be written as $$(x+y+z)(x^2+y^2+z^2-xy-yz-zx)+(x+y+z)^2-2(x+y+z)\ge0$$ or $$x^2+y^2+z^2-xy-yz-zx+x+y+z-2\ge0$$

Let $x+y+z=p\ge1;xy+yz+zx=q$, the problem is: $$p^2-3q+p-2\ge0$$

I don't know how to find the relation between $p$ and $q$, because this inequality is not symmetric (The inequality hold iff $(x;y;z)=(1;0;0);(0;1;0);(0;0;1)$)

Please give me a hint in the comments, no need to give a full answer

user26857
  • 52,094
trungbk
  • 83

2 Answers2

2

Continuing from OP's work. WLOG let $x \geq 1$, we have

$$q = xy+yz+zx = x(y+z) + yz \leq x(p-x) + (\frac{p-x}{2} ) ^2,$$

with equality iff $ y = z = \frac{ p-x}{2}$.

We WTS in the domain $ p \geq x \geq 1$, $$p^2 + p - 2 - \frac{1}{4} ( p-x)(p+3x) \geq 0.$$

Conditioning on each value of $p$, we have a much simpler quadratic in $x$:

$$ \frac{3}{4} ( x -p)(x+ \frac{p}{3}) + p^2 + p - 2 \geq 0.$$

By considering the quadratic on the restricted domain $ 1 \leq x \leq p$, the minimum occurs at $ \frac{ \frac{p}{3} + p} {2} = \frac{p}{3} $ if that's within the domain, else check the endpoints, giving us :

  • Case 1 if $p \geq 3$: Minimum of $\frac{2p^2}{3} + p - 2 $ occurring at $x = \frac{p}{3}. $
  • Case 2 if $3 \geq p \geq 1$: Minimum of $ \frac{1}{4} (p-1)(3p+5)$ occurring at $ x = 1$.

Thus, for all $ p \geq 1$, the minimum at least 0.

Equality holds iff $ p = x = 1$, which gives us $ (x,y,z) = (1, 0, 0)$ (and cyclic forms).

Calvin Lin
  • 68,864
  • (+1). Actually, originally I let $p = y + z, q = yz$, I got the form of $f(x, p) - g(x, p) q \ge 0$, when using $q \le \frac{p^2}{4}$, I got $f(x, p) - g(x, p) p^2/4 \ge 0$ which is easy to factorize. That's natural and also neat. – River Li Mar 18 '22 at 22:29
1

Remark: I rewrote the proof using substitution $p = y + z, q = yz$.

WLOG, assume that $x \ge 1$. Let $p = y + z, q = yz$. We have $p^2 \ge 4q$.

We have \begin{align*} &x^3 + y^3 + z^3 + (x + y + z - 1)^2 - 1 - 3xyz\\[5pt] =\, & x^3 + p^3 - 3pq + (x + p - 1)^2 - 1 - 3xq\\[5pt] =\,& x^3 + p^3 + (x + p - 1)^2 - 1 - 3(p + x)q \\[5pt] \ge\,& x^3 + p^3 + (x + p - 1)^2 - 1 - 3(p + x)\cdot \frac{p^2}{4}\\[5pt] =\,& (x + p)(x^2 - xp + p^2) + (x + p)^2 - 2(x + p) - \frac34(p + x)p^2\\[5pt] =\,& \frac14(x + p)[4x^2 - 4xp + 4p^2 + 4(x + p) - 8 - 3p^2]\\[5pt] =\,& \frac14(x + p)[p^2 - 4(x - 1)p + 4x^2 + 4x - 8]\\[5pt] =\,&\frac14(x + p)[(p - 2x + 2)^2 + 12(x - 1)]\\[5pt] \ge\,& 0. \end{align*}

We are done.

River Li
  • 37,323