Determine all positive integers such that the (3-variable) polynomial
divides the (3-variable) polynomial
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Suppose that , so that . Define and . Then, we have , so that as real polynomials in . Furthermore, and both have integer coefficients, and is monic. Hence, has integer coefficients as a polynomial in , and in particular, it evaluates to an integer whenever is an integer. Thus, for any integer , we have as integers.
Plugging in , we find that . Now, suppose is a prime such that . Then , and so
Therefore, , which means that for some .
Note that the left hand side of this equation is always 1 modulo 4, so must be even. Letting , we have . It follows that and are both powers of 2, whence and . Thus, is the only solution.
Solution 2
We give an alternate way to show that does not divide for . Notice that for any complex , we have
and
It suffices for us to find an such that , but . Set , so that if and only if . In these terms, it suffices to find an so that and
Suppose for the sake of contradiction that no such existed. Then, for any root of , we have that , implying that
Thus, is a primitive third root of unity, so is the negation of a primitive third root of unity. In particular, both and have unit norm. Now, because , we have
which implies that both and have unit norm and hence that is itself a primitive third root of unity. Therefore, any root of is a primitive root third root of unity, so we must have for some non-zero constant . Multiplying both sides by , we obtain
The coefficient of the polynomial on the left is 0, while the coefficient of the polynomial on the right is , a contradiction. Therefore, we may find an with the desired property, as needed.