Let be a real number such that the system
has exactly one complex solution . The sum of all possible values of can be written as , where and are relatively prime positive integers. Find . Here .
Solution
Geometrically, represents the distance between complex numbers and in the complex plane. Thus means that the distance from to is . The set of solutions for is then a circle with radius and center . Similarly, means that the distance from to equals the distance from to . Geometrically, the set of points equidistant from two fixed points and is the perpendicular bisector of . Thus the solution set for this equation is the line that is the perpendicular bisector of the segment connecting and .
Any intersection of the circle from the first equation and the line from the second equation is a solution to the system of equations. For the system to have exactly one complex solution, the line and the circle must be tangent. There are two such lines, and , as shown below.
Switching to Cartesian coordinates, for any , the slope of the line between and equals , and hence the slopes of lines and are both equal to . Because line passes through , the equation of this line is
and the -coordinate of its -intercept is . Similarly, the -coordinate of the -intercept of is .
The line , parallel to lines and , whose -intercept is the midpoint of the -intercepts of lines and , passes through the center of the circle, which is at . Thus the equation of line is
and the -coordinate of its -intercept is .
Therefore
from which . The requested sum is .