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Algebra Difficulty 7.6 National Olympiad, round 2 Prove it India

Problem:
Let R[x]\mathbb{R}[x] be the set of all polynomials with real coefficients, and let degP\operatorname{deg} P denote the degree of a nonzero polynomial PP. Find all functions f:R[x]R[x]f: \mathbb{R}[x] \rightarrow \mathbb{R}[x] satisfying the following conditions:
- ff maps the zero polynomial to itself,
- for any non-zero polynomial PR[x]P \in \mathbb{R}[x], degf(P)1+degP\operatorname{deg} f(P) \leq 1+\operatorname{deg} P, and
- for any two polynomials P,QR[x]P, Q \in \mathbb{R}[x], the polynomials Pf(Q)P-f(Q) and Qf(P)Q-f(P) have the same set of real roots.

Solution

Solution:
We have f(p)=pf(p)=p for all pR[x]p \in \mathbb{R}[x], or f(p)=pf(p)=-p for all pR[x]p \in \mathbb{R}[x]. These clearly satisfy the given conditions.

Proof
Claim 1 For all pR[x],f(f(p))=pp \in \mathbb{R}[x], f(f(p))=p.
Proof. Using condition 3 on the polynomials pp and f(p)f(p), we see that pf(f(p))p-f(f(p)) has the same set of real roots as f(p)f(p)=0f(p)-f(p)=0, which is R\mathbb{R}. Therefore pf(f(p))p-f(f(p)) is identically zero.

Note that this implies ff is bijective. In what follows, pqp \sim q will mean that pp and qq have the same set of real roots. Note that putting f(q)f(q) for qq in condition 2 gives pqf(p)f(q)p-q \sim f(p)-f(q) for all p,qp, q (call this statement ()(\star) ). In particular, putting q=0q=0 here, pf(p)p \sim f(p) for all pp (call this ()(\star\star)).

Claim 2 For all non-zero pR[x]p \in \mathbb{R}[x], degp1degf(p)degp+1\operatorname{deg} p-1 \leq \operatorname{deg} f(p) \leq \operatorname{deg} p+1.
Proof. The right inequality is simply condition 2. Now using condition 2 on the polynomial f(p)f(p), we see that degf(f(p))degf(p)+1\operatorname{deg} f(f(p)) \leq \operatorname{deg} f(p)+1 which gives degf(p)degp1\operatorname{deg} f(p) \geq \operatorname{deg} p-1 because of claim 1.

Claim 3 For all pR[x],degf(p)=degpp \in \mathbb{R}[x], \operatorname{deg} f(p)=\operatorname{deg} p.
Proof. Note that nonzero constant polynomials have no root, so by ()(\star\star), their image must have no root. This is impossible if that image has degree 1; so by condition 2, the image has degree 0, i.e., is a constant polynomial. First consider the case when degp\operatorname{deg} p is even; assume for now the leading coefficient of pp is positive. That means p(x)p(x) \rightarrow \infty for x±x \rightarrow \pm \infty, so it has a global minimum, say CC. Then the polynomial p+kp+k (k>Ck>C) has no real roots. Using ()(\star) on pp and the constant polynomial k-k, we see that f(p)f(k)f(p)-f(-k) has no roots. But this is impossible if degf(p)\operatorname{deg} f(p) is odd (since f(k)f(-k) is a constant), so by claim 2, we must have degf(p)=degp\operatorname{deg} f(p)=\operatorname{deg} p. A similar argument holds if pp has negative leading coefficient.

Now if degp\operatorname{deg} p is odd, then degf(p)\operatorname{deg} f(p) cannot be even, otherwise q=f(p)q=f(p) would be an even degree polynomial whose image f(q)=f(f(p))=pf(q)=f(f(p))=p has odd degree, contradicting the last paragraph. Thus degf(p)\operatorname{deg} f(p) is odd, and using claim 2, we infer that degf(p)=degp\operatorname{deg} f(p)=\operatorname{deg} p.

We call a polynomial pp ninth-grade if all degp\operatorname{deg} p roots of pp are real and distinct. Clearly for any ninth-grade pp, pp and f(p)f(p) have the roots and same degree, so f(p)=cppf(p)=c_{p} p for some non-zero cpRc_{p} \in \mathbb{R}.

Claim 4 Given any non-constant qR[x]q \in \mathbb{R}[x], we can choose rr with degree bigger than qq so that both rr and qrq-r are ninth-grade.
Proof. Assume that all real roots of qq are inside the interval [a,b][a, b]. Now choose a number nn which has the same parity as degq\operatorname{deg} q and is bigger than degq\operatorname{deg} q, and choose numbers c1=a<c2<<cn1<cn=bc_{1}=a< c_{2}<\cdots<c_{n-1}<c_{n}=b. Consider the polynomial p=k(xc1)(xc2)(xcn)p=k\left(x-c_{1}\right)\left(x-c_{2}\right) \cdots\left(x-c_{n}\right), so that kk has the same sign as the leading coefficient of qq (value of kk will be chosen later). Clearly pp has alternating signs on the intervals (,c1),(c1,c2),,(cn1,cn),(cn,)\left(-\infty, c_{1}\right),\left(c_{1}, c_{2}\right), \cdots,\left(c_{n-1}, c_{n}\right),\left(c_{n}, \infty\right), and has the same sign as qq outside [a,b][a, b]. Let k1,k2,,kn1k_{1}, k_{2}, \cdots, k_{n-1} be the extrema of pp on the intervals [c1,c2],[cn1,cn]\left[c_{1}, c_{2}\right], \cdots\left[c_{n-1}, c_{n}\right] in that order, and suppose they are attained at x1,xn1x_{1}, \cdots x_{n-1}. Make k|k| large enough so that ki>maxx[a,b]q(x)\left|k_{i}\right|>\max _{x \in[a, b]}|q(x)| for all ii. Then p+qp+q has degree nn, and has alternating signs at aϵ,x1,,xn,b+ϵa-\epsilon, x_{1}, \cdots, x_{n}, b+\epsilon for ϵ>0\epsilon>0, so it has exactly nn distinct roots. Now it is enough to take r=pr=-p.

Claim 5 For any qR[x],f(q)=cqqq \in \mathbb{R}[x], f(q)=c_{q} q for some non-zero real cqc_{q}.
Proof. We have already proved this for ninth-grade polynomials. Take ninth-grade rr so that qrq-r is ninth grade and n=deg(qr)>degqn=\operatorname{deg}(q-r)>\operatorname{deg} q. Then qrf(q)f(r)=f(q)crrq-r \sim f(q)-f(r)=f(q)-c_{r} r. Since qrq-r is ninth-grade and has the same degree as f(q)crrf(q)-c_{r} r, qr=c(f(q)crr)=cf(q)c1rq-r=c\left(f(q)-c_{r} r\right)=c f(q)-c_{1} r for non-zero reals c,c1c, c_{1}. Comparing the leading term (which belongs to rr) on both sides, c1=1c_{1}=1, therefore q=cf(q)f(q)=cqqq=c f(q) \Longrightarrow f(q)=c_{q} q.

Claim 6 For any p,qR[x],cp=cqp, q \in \mathbb{R}[x], c_{p}=c_{q}.
Proof. We note that for any two polynomials p,qp, q if pqp-q has a real root which is not a root of pp, then cp=cqc_{p}=c_{q}. Indeed, if ss is a root of pqp-q (meaning p(s)=q(s)0p(s)=q(s) \neq 0), then it's also a root of f(p)f(q)=cppcqqf(p)-f(q)=c_{p} p-c_{q} q, so that cpp(s)=cqq(s)cp=cqc_{p} p(s)=c_{q} q(s) \Longrightarrow c_{p}=c_{q}.

Now for any two p,qp, q, choose odd NN such that N>max{degp,degq}N>\max \{\operatorname{deg} p, \operatorname{deg} q\}. Then the polynomial r=xNr=x^{N} is such that rpr-p and rqr-q both have real roots, so cq=cr=cpc_{q}=c_{r}=c_{p}.

Claim 6 clearly means there is cRc \in \mathbb{R} so that f(p)=cpf(p)=c p for all pR[x]p \in \mathbb{R}[x]. Using the fact f(f(p))=pf(f(p))=p, we see that the only possibilities are c=1c=1 or c=1c=-1, completing the proof.

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