Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2015

Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Prove it Saudi Arabia

Prove that the polynomial P(X)=(X212X+11)4+23P(X)=\left(X^{2}-12 X+11\right)^{4}+23 can not be written as the product of three non-constant polynomials with integer coefficients.

Solution

Suppose for the sake of contradiction that
P(X)=Q(X)H(X)R(X), P(X)=Q(X) H(X) R(X),
where Q(X)Q(X), H(X)H(X), R(X)R(X) are non-constant polynomials with integer coefficients. Since P(x)>0P(x)>0 for every xRx \in \mathbb{R}, the degrees of Q(X)Q(X), H(X)H(X), R(X)R(X) are all even. It implies that two of these three polynomials are quadratic. Suppose that degQ(X)=degH(X)=2\operatorname{deg} Q(X)=\operatorname{deg} H(X)=2.
Now, P(1)=P(11)=23P(1)=P(11)=23, implies that Q(1)Q(1), Q(11)Q(11) are divisors of 2323. This means that Q(1)Q(1), Q(11){±1,±23}Q(11) \in\{ \pm 1, \pm 23\}. But because 1010 divides Q(11)Q(1)Q(11)-Q(1) we have Q(1)=Q(11)Q(1)=Q(11). Similarly, we have H(1)=H(11)H(1)=H(11).
Besides, Q(1)H(1)Q(1) H(1) is a divisor of 2323 so at least one of Q(1)Q(1) or H(1)H(1) is ±1\pm 1. Suppose without loss of generality that Q(1)=±1Q(1)= \pm 1 then Q(11)=Q(1)=±1Q(11)=Q(1)= \pm 1. This implies that Q(X)=(X1)(X11)±1Q(X)=(X-1)(X-11) \pm 1. But this implies that Q(X)Q(X) has a real root while P(x)P(x) is positive for all xRx \in \mathbb{R}, which is a contradiction.

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