On a cyclic inequality with exponents and permutations, and its Shapiro-type analogue

Abstract

We prove that the cyclic inequality $\sum\limits_{i=1}^{i=n}\left(\frac{x_i}{x_{i+1}}\right)^k\geq\sum\limits_{i=1}^{i=n}\frac{x_i}{x_{\sigma(i)}}$ holds for $k$ in a specific range dependant on the permutation $\sigma$. We also show that the same is not true for the Sahpiro-type generalizations.