On a conjecture on the symmetric means (Q2382713)

If \(\underline x =(x_1,\ldots, x_n)\) is a positive \(n\)-tuple let \(E_{n,k}(\underline x)\) denote the \(k\)th symmetric function. Further write \(\underline x'\) for the \(n\)-tuple \((1-x_1,\dots, 1-x_n)\) and \( \underline x^{-1}\) for the \(n\)-tuple \((1/x_1, \ldots, 1/x_n)\). \textit{H. Alzer, S. Ruscheweyh} and \textit{L. Salinas} [Aequationes Math. 62, No.~3, 310--320 (2001; Zbl 0993.26010)] conjectured the following Ky-Fan inequality type for the elementary symmetric functions: if \(0< x_i\leq 1/2, 1\leq i\leq n\), then \[ \frac{E_{n,k}^{1/k}(\underline x^{-1})}{E_{n,k}^{1/k}(\underline {x'}^{-1})}\leq \frac{E_{n,k-1}^{1/(k-1)}(\underline x^{-1})}{E_{n,k-1}^{1/(k-1)}(\underline {x'}^{-1})} \] The main result of the paper implies this conjecture. The conjecture also follows from a weaker corollary of the main result; a direct proof of this corollary is given.