Problem:
A polynomial with degree is reflexive if there is an integer such that for every , where for . Let be an integer and be a polynomial with integer coefficients. Prove that there exist reflexive polynomials with integer coefficients such that
Solutions — 2
Solution 1
Solution:
Let be the degree of and let be any non-negative integer. We will choose
First, we must show that both and are integer polynomials. Consider the numerator in 's definition, . This is clearly an integer polynomial. As it is equal to when evaluated at , divides it. Furthermore, as is monic, the quotient has integer coefficients. The argument for is similar.
Next, we will show that this choice of and satisfies the desired equation. Plugging them into the RHS of the equation gives
as desired.
Finally, we will show that and are indeed reflexive. We can re-interpret the reflexive condition as such:
Polynomial is reflexive iff there is an integer for which
We have
as desired. Similarly,
Solution 2
Solution:
We write degree polynomial as
Define vector as
We also denote for some sufficiently high degree (e.g. ) as the vector of powers of , i.e.
For a matrix , is an integer polynomial of degree . Note that if the non-zero entries of matrix are horizontally symmetric, then the resulting polynomial must be reflexive.
Then their total is the matrix whose entries are at the parallelogram formed by
which is precisely .