Given a positive integer , find all polynomials of integral coefficients such that divides for all positive integers , here .
Solution
Lemma: Let be a prime. If , then .
Proof: Suppose does not divide , then we may write , where is a positive integer and .
Since is a polynomial with integer coefficients, we have
Also since and , we obtain
By the hypothesis we know , hence .
But since and is a prime, cannot be divisible by , a contradiction!
Thus the lemma is proved.
By the lemma we know: for a prime , has only as its prime factor, and since , the value of can only be one of , that is, possibilities.
Consider the values of this function at all primes; since there are infinitely many primes, by the pigeonhole principle there must exist a nonnegative integer (where ) such that there are infinitely many primes satisfying .
Observe that the polynomial satisfies: the equation has infinitely many roots, hence must hold identically, that is, , where , gives all solutions of the equation in the problem.