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Algebra Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Prove it Saudi Arabia

Given two non-constant polynomials P(x),Q(x)P(x), Q(x) with real coefficients. For a real number aa, we define
Pa={zC:P(z)=a};Qa={zC:Q(z)=a}. P_{a} = \{ z \in \mathbb{C} : P(z) = a \} ; \quad Q_{a} = \{ z \in \mathbb{C} : Q(z) = a \} .
Denote by KK the set of real numbers aa such that Pa=QaP_{a} = Q_{a}. Suppose that the set KK contains at least two elements, prove that P(x)=Q(x)P(x) = Q(x).

Solution

First we see that if the polynomial P(x)aP(x)-a has a root α\alpha with multiplicity kk, then P(x)P'(x) also has the root α\alpha with multiplicity k1k-1.

Assume that a,ba, b are two distinct elements of KK and r1,r2,,rir_{1}, r_{2}, \ldots, r_{i} are the roots of P(x)aP(x)-a with multiplicity k1,k2,,kik_{1}, k_{2}, \ldots, k_{i}, respectively.
Then r1,r2,,rir_{1}, r_{2}, \ldots, r_{i} are also the roots of Q(x)aQ(x)-a.
Let t1,t2,,tjt_{1}, t_{2}, \ldots, t_{j} be the roots of P(x)bP(x)-b with multiplicity s1,s2,,sjs_{1}, s_{2}, \ldots, s_{j}, respectively.
Then t1,t2,,tjt_{1}, t_{2}, \ldots, t_{j} are also the roots of Q(x)bQ(x)-b.

Assume that degP(x)degQ(x)\deg P(x) \geq \deg Q(x), and R(x)=P(x)Q(x)R(x) = P(x) - Q(x) is not identically zero. Thus, degP(x)=k1++ki=s1++sjdegR(x)i+j\deg P(x) = k_{1} + \cdots + k_{i} = s_{1} + \cdots + s_{j} \geq \deg R(x) \geq i + j, then we can get
degP(x)(k11)++(ki1)+(s11)++(sj1)=(k1++ki)+(s1++sj)(i+j)degP(x), \begin{aligned} \deg P'(x) & \geq (k_{1} - 1) + \cdots + (k_{i} - 1) + (s_{1} - 1) + \cdots + (s_{j} - 1) \\ & = (k_{1} + \cdots + k_{i}) + (s_{1} + \cdots + s_{j}) - (i + j) \geq \deg P(x), \end{aligned}
a contradiction. \square

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