Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
Show that the polynomial (x2+x)21000+1\left(x^{2}+x\right)^{2^{1000}}+1 cannot be factored as the product of two nonconstant polynomials with integer coefficients.

Solution

Solution:
Assume for contradiction this is not the case, and the polynomial can be written as
(x2+x)21000+1=f(x)g(x) \left(x^{2}+x\right)^{2^{1000}}+1=f(x) g(x)
for some nonconstant ff and gg with integer coefficients. Clearly we may assume ff and gg have leading coefficient one. Taking modulo 2 we obtain that
f(x)g(x)(x2+x)21000+1(x2+x+1)21000(mod2) f(x) g(x) \equiv\left(x^{2}+x\right)^{2^{1000}}+1 \equiv\left(x^{2}+x+1\right)^{2^{1000}} \quad(\bmod 2)
where the last step follows by noticing that (a+b)2a2+b2(mod2)(a+b)^{2} \equiv a^{2}+b^{2}(\bmod 2).
As x2+x+1x^{2}+x+1 is irreducible modulo 2, it follows that we must have
f(x)=(x2+x+1)α+2f^(x) f(x)=\left(x^{2}+x+1\right)^{\alpha}+2 \hat{f}(x)
and
g(x)=(x2+x+1)β+2g^(x) g(x)=\left(x^{2}+x+1\right)^{\beta}+2 \hat{g}(x)
for some polynomials f^,g^\hat{f}, \hat{g} with integer coefficients, where α+β=1000\alpha+\beta=1000. By hypothesis, α,β1\alpha, \beta \geq 1.
Let ε\varepsilon be a root to x2+x+1x^{2}+x+1, namely ε=12(1+i3)\varepsilon=\frac{1}{2}(-1+i \sqrt{3}). Substituting ε\varepsilon into the original relation, we derive
2=(1)21000+1=4f^(ε)g^(ε) 2=(-1)^{2^{1000}}+1=4 \hat{f}(\varepsilon) \hat{g}(\varepsilon)
and hence 12=f^(ε)g^(ε)\frac{1}{2}=\hat{f}(\varepsilon) \hat{g}(\varepsilon). But we claim this is impossible. Indeed, the right-hand side is a polynomial in ε\varepsilon with integer coefficients. Repeatedly applying the identity ε2=(ε+1)\varepsilon^{2}=-(\varepsilon+1), we find that the right-hand side must be of the form a+bεa+b \varepsilon, where a,ba, b are integers. By equating real and imaginary parts this gives a=12a=\frac{1}{2} and b=0b=0, which is a contradiction.

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