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Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National Olympiad Find the answer United States

A quadratic polynomial p(x)p(x) with real coefficients and leading coefficient 11 is called disrespectful if the equation p(p(x))=0p(p(x)) = 0 is satisfied by exactly three real numbers. Among all the disrespectful quadratic polynomials, there is a unique such polynomial p~(x)\tilde{p}(x) for which the sum of the roots is maximized. What is p~(1)\tilde{p}(1)?

Pick one

Solution

Suppose p(x)=(xr)(xs)p(x) = (x - r)(x - s). Observe that p(x)p(x) must have (two) real roots in order for p(p(x))p(p(x)) to have any roots at all. More specifically, if yy is a root of p(p(x))p(p(x)), then p(y)=rp(y) = r or p(y)=sp(y) = s. That is, the equations
(xr)(xs)r=0and(xr)(xs)s=0 (x - r)(x - s) - r = 0 \quad \text{and} \quad (x - r)(x - s) - s = 0
together must have exactly three real roots among them. It follows that one of these two quadratics, say (xr)(xs)r(x - r)(x - s) - r, must have discriminant zero.
Expansion yields x2(r+s)x+r(s1)=0x^2 - (r+s)x + r(s-1) = 0, so the discriminant Δ\Delta of this quadratic must satisfy
0=Δ=(r+s)24r(s1)=(rs)2+4r. 0 = \Delta = (r+s)^2 - 4r(s-1) = (r-s)^2 + 4r.
This implies that rr is negative, say r=r0r = -r_0, and that s=r±4r=r0±2r0s = r \pm \sqrt{-4r} = -r_0 \pm 2\sqrt{r_0}. It follows that
r+s=2(r0±r0)2(r0+r0)214=12, r + s = 2(-r_0 \pm \sqrt{r_0}) \le 2(-r_0 + \sqrt{r_0}) \le 2 \cdot \frac{1}{4} = \frac{1}{2},
where the second inequality follows from the fact that aa214a - a^2 \le \frac{1}{4} for all real numbers aa. Thus r=14r = -\frac{1}{4} and s=34s = \frac{3}{4}, which works. In turn, p~(x)=(x+14)(x34)\tilde{p}(x) = (x + \frac{1}{4})(x - \frac{3}{4}) and p~(1)=5414=516\tilde{p}(1) = \frac{5}{4} \cdot \frac{1}{4} = \frac{5}{16}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.