Maths Olympiad Prep

Library / /4 of 4

Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Let pp be a tropical polynomial:
p(x)=anxnan1xn1a1xa0,an p(x)=a_{n} \odot x^{n} \oplus a_{n-1} \odot x^{n-1} \oplus \cdots \oplus a_{1} \odot x \oplus a_{0}, \quad a_{n} \neq \infty
Prove that we can find r1,r2,,rnR{}r_{1}, r_{2}, \ldots, r_{n} \in \mathbb{R} \cup\{\infty\} so that
p(x)=an(xr1)(xr2)(xrn) p(x)=a_{n} \odot\left(x \oplus r_{1}\right) \odot\left(x \oplus r_{2}\right) \odot \cdots \odot\left(x \oplus r_{n}\right)
for all xx.

Solution

Solution:
Again, we have
p(x)=min0kn{ak+kx}. p(x)=\min _{0 \leq k \leq n}\left\{a_{k}+k x\right\} .
So the graph of y=p(x)y=p(x) can be drawn as follows: first, draw all the lines y=ak+kxy=a_{k}+k x, k=0,1,,nk=0,1, \ldots, n, then trace out the lowest broken line, which then is the graph of y=p(x)y=p(x).
So p(x)p(x) is piecewise linear and continuous, and has slopes from the set {0,1,2,,n}\{0,1,2, \ldots, n\}. We know from the previous problem that p(x)p(x) is concave, and so its slope must be decreasing (this can also be observed simply from the drawing of the graph of y=p(x)y=p(x) ). Then, let rkr_{k} denote the xx-coordinate of the leftmost kink such that the slope of the graph is less than kk to the right of this kink. Then, rnrn1r1r_{n} \leq r_{n-1} \leq \cdots \leq r_{1}, and for rk1xrkr_{k-1} \leq x \leq r_{k}, the graph of pp is linear with slope kk. Note that it is possible that rk1=rkr_{k-1}=r_{k}, if no segment of pp has slope kk. Also, since ana_{n} \neq \infty, the leftmost piece of p(x)p(x) must have slope nn, and thus rnr_{n} exists, and thus all rir_{i} exist.
Now, compare p(x)p(x) with
q(x)=an(xr1)(xr2)(xrn)=an+min(x,r1)+min(x,r2)++min(x,rn). \begin{aligned} q(x) & =a_{n} \odot\left(x \oplus r_{1}\right) \odot\left(x \oplus r_{2}\right) \odot \cdots \odot\left(x \oplus r_{n}\right) \\ & =a_{n}+\min \left(x, r_{1}\right)+\min \left(x, r_{2}\right)+\cdots+\min \left(x, r_{n}\right) . \end{aligned}
For rk1xrkr_{k-1} \leq x \leq r_{k}, the slope of q(x)q(x) is kk, and for xrnx \leq r_{n} the slope of qq is nn and for xr1x \geq r_{1} the slope of qq is 0. So qq is piecewise linear, and of course it is continuous. It follows that the graph of qq coincides with that of pp up to a translation. By taking any x<rnx<r_{n}, we see that q(x)=an+nx=p(x)q(x)=a_{n}+n x=p(x), we see that the graphs of pp and qq coincide, and thus they must be the same function.

Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.

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