Problem:
Let be a polynomial with integer coefficients such that and . Given that there exist two positive integers such that and , determine the possible values of .
(Note: observe that 1999 is a prime number)
Problem:
Let be a polynomial with integer coefficients such that and . Given that there exist two positive integers such that and , determine the possible values of .
(Note: observe that 1999 is a prime number)
Solution:
The possible values of are .
To justify these results, let us begin by proving that
- can only be or ;
- is a positive divisor of ;
- equals or .
To prove these statements, observe that from it follows that the constant term of is zero, so we can write
for some polynomial with integer coefficients. Substituting into this relation we get and thus, since and are integers and is prime, the first statement is proved. The second statement is proved analogously by setting .
For the third statement, observe that by Ruffini's theorem it follows that
for some polynomial with integer coefficients. Substituting into this relation we get , that is, is a divisor of , which is equivalent to the third statement.
Since it is easy to check that the only positive values of and satisfying the three conditions are , or .
In the first case . It remains to verify that there actually exist polynomials satisfying the conditions required in the statement with and : for example the second-degree polynomial .
for some polynomial with integer coefficients. Substituting we then get that
Since by hypothesis we have , the only possible values for are , to which correspond .