A polynomial is "simple" if it is divisible by but not by . For the polynomial , we know that there exists a simple polynomial such that is divisible by . Prove that there exists a simple polynomial such that is divisible by .
Solution
We prove this statement by induction. The base is clear, by the induction hypothesis assumes that
if it is also divisible by then we are done. Otherwise, set . Then and so we have
Assume that , , then the coefficient of in is equal to ; we can set unless , so we have to show that this does not happen.
If we set in the hypothesis we get , and if we check the coefficient of in we get but we know that so we should have which means that for .
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