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Algebra Difficulty 8.6 Shortlist Prove it Switzerland

Problem:
Find all polynomials PP with real coefficients having no repeated roots, such that for any complex number zz, the equation zP(z)=1z P(z)=1 holds if and only if P(z1)P(z+1)=0P(z-1) P(z+1)=0.

Solution

Solution:
Assume that we have a polynomial PP that satisfies the desired conditions. We begin by examining some easy cases:
If PP is a constant polynomial, that is, P(z)=cP(z)=c for some cRc \in \mathbb{R}, the condition becomes cz=1c z=1 if and only if c2=0c^{2}=0. If c=0c=0, then c2=0c^{2}=0 is always satisfied while cz=1c z=1 cannot hold, contradiction. If however c0c \neq 0, we can plug in z=1cz=\frac{1}{c} to obtain a contradiction. Therefore, there are no solutions among constant polynomials.

What about polynomials of the form P(z)=mz+bP(z)=m z+b where m0m \neq 0? The condition becomes mz2+bz=1m z^{2}+b z=1 if and only if (m(z1)+b)(m(z+1)+b)=0(m(z-1)+b)(m(z+1)+b)=0, so the two quadratic polynomials mz2+bz1m z^{2}+b z-1 and m2z2+2bmz+(b2m2)m^{2} z^{2}+2 b m z+\left(b^{2}-m^{2}\right) have the same roots, and this means that they are multiples of each other. By comparing the leading coefficients we see that the multiplying factor is mm, and by comparing the other coefficients we get that bm=2bmb m=2 b m and m=b2m2-m=b^{2}-m^{2}. Since m0m \neq 0, the first of these two equations gives us b=0b=0 and the second m=1m=1. This shows that the only linear polynomial that can satisfy these conditions is P(z)=zP(z)=z, which is obviously a solution.

Let's now assume that deg(P)=n2\deg(P)=n \geq 2.
Consider the polynomial Q(z)=(z+1)P(z+1)(z1)P(z1)Q(z)=(z+1) P(z+1)-(z-1) P(z-1). It's easy to see that deg(Q)deg(P)\deg(Q) \leq \deg(P) (since the highest degree terms of (z+1)P(z+1)(z+1) P(z+1) and (z1)P(z1)(z-1) P(z-1) cancel out). We show that QQ also has the same roots as PP:
If P(r)=0P(r)=0 for some complex number rr, by plugging in z=r±1z=r \pm 1 in the condition of the problem, we see that (r1)P(r1)=1=(r+1)P(r+1)(r-1) P(r-1)=1=(r+1) P(r+1) and therefore Q(r)=0Q(r)=0. This shows that all roots of PP are also roots of QQ. Since PP has no repeated roots and the degree of QQ is not greater than the degree of PP, we deduce that QQ is just a multiple of PP.

Let P(z)=k=0nakzkP(z)=\sum_{k=0}^{n} a_{k} z^{k}. This gives us
Q(z)=k=0nak((z+1)k+1(z1)k+1) Q(z)=\sum_{k=0}^{n} a_{k}\left((z+1)^{k+1}-(z-1)^{k+1}\right)
In order to compare QQ to PP, we would like to write it in the form Q(z)=k=0nbkzkQ(z)=\sum_{k=0}^{n} b_{k} z^{k}. To compute bnb_{n}, note that the only terms in ()(\star) that contain znz^{n} come from k=n1k=n-1 and k=nk=n. We get
bnzn=an1(znzn)+an((n+1)zn((n+1)zn))=2(n+1)anzn b_{n} z^{n}=a_{n-1}\left(z^{n}-z^{n}\right)+a_{n}\left((n+1) z^{n}-\left(-(n+1) z^{n}\right)\right)=2(n+1) a_{n} z^{n}
so we must have Q=2(n+1)PQ=2(n+1) P. Now we compute bn1b_{n-1}. Similarly to above, we see that the only relevant terms in ()(\star) come from k=n2,k=n1k=n-2, k=n-1 or k=nk=n. We get
bn1zn1=an2(zn1zn1)+an1(nzn1(n)zn1)+an((n+12)zn1(n+12)zn1)=2nan1zn1 \begin{aligned} b_{n-1} z^{n-1} & =a_{n-2}\left(z^{n-1}-z^{n-1}\right)+a_{n-1}\left(n z^{n-1}-(-n) z^{n-1}\right)+a_{n}\left(\binom{n+1}{2} z^{n-1}-\binom{n+1}{2} z^{n-1}\right) \\ & =2 n a_{n-1} z^{n-1} \end{aligned}
But if Q=2(n+1)PQ=2(n+1) P, we must have bn1=2(n+1)an1b_{n-1}=2(n+1) a_{n-1}, contradiction! This shows that there cannot be any polynomial of degree 2\geq 2 satisfying the desired conditions.

We give a different argument for the case n2n \geq 2:
Note that the problem statement is equivalent to the statement that the two polynomials zP(z)1z P(z)-1 and P(z1)P(z+1)P(z-1) P(z+1) have the same set of roots. However, the polynomial zP(z)1z P(z)-1 has degree n+1n+1 and thus at most n+1n+1 different roots. On the other hand, for each of the distinct roots r1,r2,,rnr_{1}, r_{2}, \ldots, r_{n} of PP, the numbers r1+1,,rn+1r_{1}+1, \ldots, r_{n}+1 are roots of P(z1)P(z-1) and the numbers r11,,rn1r_{1}-1, \ldots, r_{n}-1 are roots of P(z+1)P(z+1). Write rk=xk+ykir_{k}=x_{k}+y_{k} i. For any fixed yy we note the following:
If there are mm roots of PP with imaginary part yy, then there are at least m+1m+1 distinct numbers among {r11,,rn1,r1+1,,rn+1}\left\{r_{1}-1, \ldots, r_{n}-1, r_{1}+1, \ldots, r_{n}+1\right\} with imaginary part yy. This is because if WLOG r1,rmr_{1}, \ldots r_{m} all have imaginary part yy and real parts x1<<xmx_{1}<\ldots<x_{m} (the strict inequality holds because we cannot have repeated roots), then the m+1m+1 numbers r11,r1+1,,rm+1r_{1}-1, r_{1}+1, \ldots, r_{m}+1 all have different real part and so they must be different.
Since we cannot have more than n+1n+1 roots, we conclude that y1==yny_{1}=\ldots=y_{n}. In fact, they are all equal to zero because we know that if xk+ykix_{k}+y_{k} i is a root of a polynomial with real coefficients, then so is xkykix_{k}-y_{k} i. But since all yky_{k} are equal, we must have yk=yky_{k}=-y_{k}.
Since y1==yny_{1}=\ldots=y_{n}, the xk=rkx_{k}=r_{k} are pairwise distinct and we can order them x1<<xnx_{1}<\cdots<x_{n}. Analogously to above, we have x11<x1+1<<xn+1x_{1}-1<x_{1}+1<\cdots<x_{n}+1, so those have to be our n+1n+1 roots. Clearly, xk1x_{k}-1 is the kk-th smallest root, and by comparing to our chain of inequalities above, we must have xk1=xk1+1x_{k}-1=x_{k-1}+1, or xk=xk1+2x_{k}=x_{k-1}+2.
All in all, we learned that all the roots of P(z)P(z) are real and form an arithmetic progression of difference 2. We can therefore write:
P(z)=c(za+2)(za+4)(za+2n) P(z)=c \cdot(z-a+2) \cdot(z-a+4) \cdot \ldots \cdot(z-a+2 n)
for some constants a,cRa, c \in \mathbb{R} where c0c \neq 0. Hence, we can also write:
zP(z)1=cz(za+2)(za+2n)1 z P(z)-1=c \cdot z \cdot(z-a+2) \cdot \ldots \cdot(z-a+2 n)-1
The conditions in the problem statement now imply that the roots of the polynomial zP(z)1z P(z)-1 are {a1,a3,,a(2n+1)}\{a-1, a-3, \ldots, a-(2 n+1)\}. Plugging in z=a1z=a-1 into the equation above, we get
1=c(a1)13(2n1) 1=c \cdot(a-1) \cdot 1 \cdot 3 \cdot \ldots \cdot(2 n-1)
On the other hand, plugging in z=a(2n+1)z=a-(2 n+1) gives
1=c(a(2n+1))((2n1))(3)(1) 1=c \cdot(a-(2 n+1)) \cdot(-(2 n-1)) \cdot \ldots \cdot(-3) \cdot(-1)
By taking absolute values of ()(\star) and ()(\star \star) and using c0c \neq 0, we see that a1=a(2n+1)|a-1|=|a-(2 n+1)|, so a=n+1a=n+1, which allows us to find c>0c>0 using ()(\star). But now we can plug z=a3=n2z=a-3=n-2 into the equation for zP(z)1z P(z)-1 above to obtain
1=c(n2)(1)1(2n3) 1=c \cdot(n-2) \cdot(-1) \cdot 1 \cdot \ldots \cdot(2 n-3)
Since n2n \geq 2, each factor on the RHS except for the 1-1 is non-negative, which means that this equation cannot hold! We conclude that there is no such PP for n2n \geq 2.

Therefore, the only solution is P(z)=zP(z)=z.

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