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Algebra Difficulty 4.9 AIME Prove it Taiwan

Given a positive integer kk, find all polynomials f(x)f(x) of integral coefficients such that f(n)f(n) divides (n!)k(n!)^k for all positive integers nn, here n!=12nn! = 1 \cdot 2 \cdots n.

Solution

Lemma: Let pp be a prime. If pf(n)p|f(n), then pnp|n.

Proof: Suppose pp does not divide nn, then we may write n=kp+qn = kp + q, where kk is a positive integer and 0<q<p0 < q < p.

Since f(x)f(x) is a polynomial with integer coefficients, we have
kpf(n)f(nkp)pf(n)f(nkp) kp|f(n) - f(n - kp) \Rightarrow p|f(n) - f(n - kp)
Also since pf(n)p|f(n) and n=kp+qn = kp + q, we obtain
pf(n)f(nkp)pf(q) p|f(n) - f(n - kp) \Rightarrow p|f(q)
By the hypothesis we know f(q)(q!)kf(q)|(q!)^k, hence p(q!)kp|(q!)^k.

But since 0<p<q0 < p < q and pp is a prime, (q!)k(q!)^k cannot be divisible by pp, a contradiction!

Thus the lemma is proved.

By the lemma we know: for a prime pp, f(p)f(p) has only pp as its prime factor, and since f(p)(p!)kf(p)|(p!)^k, the value of f(p)f(p) can only be one of 1,p,p2,,pk1, p, p^2, \dots, p^k, that is, k+1k+1 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 rr (where 0rk0 \le r \le k) such that there are infinitely many primes pp satisfying f(p)=prf(p) = p^r.

Observe that the polynomial f(x)=xrf(x) = x^r satisfies: the equation f(x)xr=0f(x) - x^r = 0 has infinitely many roots, hence f(x)xr=0f(x) - x^r = 0 must hold identically, that is, f(x)=xrf(x) = x^r, where 0rk0 \le r \le k, gives all solutions of the equation in the problem.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from zh; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.