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Algebra Difficulty 6.2 National Olympiad Prove it Ireland

Do there exist four polynomials P1(x),P2(x),P3(x),P4(x)P_1(x), P_2(x), P_3(x), P_4(x) with real coefficients, such that the sum of any three of them always has a real root, but the sum of any two of them has no real root?

Solution

There do not exist four such polynomials. We show this as follows. Suppose that there do exist four such polynomials. If a polynomial has no real roots, it is either positive for all real xx, or else it is negative for all real xx. Consider the complete graph with the four polynomials as vertices.

Figure 1

Colour the edge PiPjP_iP_j white if Pi(x)+Pj(x)>0P_i(x) + P_j(x) > 0 for all real xx, and black if Pi(x)+Pj(x)<0P_i(x) + P_j(x) < 0 for all real xx. We cannot have a triangle PiPjPkP_iP_jP_k of the same colour, because, if we did, the polynomial Pi(x)+Pj(x)+Pk(x)P_i(x) + P_j(x) + P_k(x) which is equal to a half of (Pi(x)+Pj(x))+(Pj(x)+Pk(x))+(Pk(x)+Pi(x))(P_i(x) + P_j(x)) + (P_j(x) + P_k(x)) + (P_k(x) + P_i(x)) has a constant sign for all real xx, and therefore this sum of three polynomials would not have a real root.

By the Pigeonhole Principle, at least three of the six edges must have the same colour – let's say this colour is black. If three black edges have a common vertex, then in order to avoid forming a black triangle, the other three edges would need to be white, thus forming a white triangle – a contradiction.

So, without loss of generality, we can consider the case where P1P2,P2P3P_1P_2, P_2P_3 and P3P4P_3P_4 are black. Then P1P3P_1P_3 and P2P4P_2P_4 must be white and therefore we have (P1(x)+P3(x))+(P2(x)+P4(x))>0(P_1(x) + P_3(x)) + (P_2(x) + P_4(x)) > 0 for all real xx. But since P1P2P_1P_2 and P3P4P_3P_4 are black, we have (P1(x)+P2(x))+(P3(x)+P4(x))<0(P_1(x) + P_2(x)) + (P_3(x) + P_4(x)) < 0 for all real xx. The case where P1P2,P2P3P_1P_2, P_2P_3 and P3P4P_3P_4 are white yields a similar contradiction.

We conclude that there do not exist four such polynomials.

Figure 1

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