ThmDex – An index of mathematical definitions, results, and conjectures.
Unique global minimizer for a finite product of positive real numbers with a given sum of multiplicative inverses
Formulation 0
Let $a \in (0, \infty)$ be a D5407: Positive real number.
Then \begin{equation} N (1 / a, \ldots, 1 / a) = \underset{x \in (0, \infty)^N : \sum_{n = 1}^N \frac{1}{x_n} = a}{\text{arg min }} \, \prod_{n = 1}^N x_n \end{equation}
Proofs
Proof 0
Let $a \in (0, \infty)$ be a D5407: Positive real number.
This result is a subresult to R5185: Tight lower bound to a finite product of positive real numbers. In that result, we see that $\prod_{n = 1}^N x_n$ attains the lowest possible value when $x_1 = x_2 = \cdots = x_N$. In this case, we have \begin{equation} \left( \frac{1}{\frac{1}{N} \sum_{n = 1}^N \frac{1}{x_n}} \right)^N = \prod_{n = 1}^N x_n = x^N_k \end{equation} for some $k = 1, \ldots, N$. Substituting $\sum_{n = 1}^N \frac{1}{x_n} = a$ and raising both sides to power $1 / N$, we have \begin{equation} \frac{N}{a} = \frac{1}{a / N} = x_k \end{equation} Since $k = 1, \ldots, N$ was arbitrary, the claim follows. $\square$