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Switzerland Selection Solution

Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Switzerland

Problem:

Determine all monic polynomials P(x)=x2023+a2022x2022+⋯+a1x+a0P(x) = x^{2023} + a_{2022} x^{2022} + \cdots + a_{1} x + a_{0} with real coefficients such that a2022=0a_{2022} = 0, P(1)=1P(1) = 1, and all roots of PP are real and less than 11.

Solution

Solution:

Write P(x)=(x−z1)(x−z2)…(x−z2023)P(x) = (x - z_{1})(x - z_{2}) \ldots (x - z_{2023}), where z1,…,z2023z_{1}, \ldots, z_{2023} are the roots of PP. Note that P(1)=1P(1) = 1 is equivalent to (1−z1)(1−z2)…(1−z2023)=1(1 - z_{1})(1 - z_{2}) \ldots (1 - z_{2023}) = 1. Furthermore, by Vieta, z1+z2+…+z2023=0z_{1} + z_{2} + \ldots + z_{2023} = 0. This gives us the two equations
(1−z1)+(1−z2)+…+(1−z2023)=2023(1−z1)⋅(1−z2)⋅…⋅(1−z2023)=1 \begin{aligned} (1 - z_{1}) + (1 - z_{2}) + \ldots + (1 - z_{2023}) & = 2023 \\ (1 - z_{1}) \cdot (1 - z_{2}) \cdot \ldots \cdot (1 - z_{2023}) & = 1 \end{aligned}
By observing that
12023⋅∑i=12023(1−zi)=(∏i=12023(1−zi))12023 \frac{1}{2023} \cdot \sum_{i=1}^{2023} (1 - z_{i}) = \left( \prod_{i=1}^{2023} (1 - z_{i}) \right)^{\frac{1}{2023}}
and using the equality case of AM-GM (which can be applied since 1−zi>01 - z_{i} > 0 for all ii), we deduce that z1=z2=…=z2023=0z_{1} = z_{2} = \ldots = z_{2023} = 0. Therefore, the only solution is P(x)=x2023P(x) = x^{2023}. This polynomial obviously satisfies the desired properties.

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