Find all pairs of polynomials p(x),q(x)∈R[x] satisfying the equality p(x2)=p(x)q(1−x)+p(1−x)q(x) for all real x.
Solution
(Solution by A. Asanau, D. Voynov.) Replace x by 1−x in p(x2)=p(x)q(1−x)+p(1−x)q(x),(1) then we have p((x−1)2)=p(1−x)q(x)+p(x)q(1−x)=p(x2). It follows that the polynomial p(x2) is periodic, i.e., p(x) is a constant polynomial, p(x)=a for some a∈R. If a=0, then (1) is valid for any arbitrary polynomial q(x). If a=0, then (1) becomes q(1−x)+q(x)=1 for all x. Replacing x by x+0.5 we can rewrite the last equality as q(0.5−x)−0.5+q(0.5+x)−0.5=0.(2) Let h(x)=q(0.5+x)−0.5. Then (2) shows that h(−x)=−h(x), so we may write h(x)=xr(x2) for some polynomial r(x). Hence q(0.5+x)=xr(x2)+0.5. Replace x by x−0.5 here, we obtain q(x)=(x−0.5)r((x−0.5)2)+0.5 which obviously satisfies the condition.
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