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Algebra Difficulty 6.9 National Olympiad Prove it Canada

Find all polynomials P(x)P(x) with integer coefficients such that P(P(n)+n)P(P(n)+n) is a prime number for infinitely many integers nn.

Solution

Note that if P(n)=0P(n) = 0 then P(P(n)+n)=P(n)=0P(P(n) + n) = P(n) = 0 which is not prime. Let P(x)P(x) be a degree kk polynomial of the form P(x)=akxk+ak1xk1++a0P(x) = a_k x^k + a_{k-1} x^{k-1} + \dots + a_0 and note that if P(n)0P(n) \ne 0 then
P(P(n)+n)P(n)=ak[(P(n)+n)knk]+ak1[(P(n)+n)k1nk1]++a1P(n) P(P(n) + n) - P(n) = a_k[(P(n) + n)^k - n^k] + a_{k-1}[(P(n) + n)^{k-1} - n^{k-1}] + \dots + a_1 P(n)
which is divisible by (P(n)+n)n=P(n)(P(n)+n) - n = P(n). Therefore if P(P(n)+n)P(P(n)+n) is prime then either P(n)=±1P(n) = \pm 1 or P(P(n)+n)=±P(n)=pP(P(n)+n) = \pm P(n) = p for some prime number pp. Since P(x)P(x) is a polynomial, it follows that P(n)=±1P(n) = \pm 1 for only finitely many integers nn. Therefore either P(n)=P(P(n)+n)P(n) = P(P(n)+n) for infinitely many integers nn or P(n)=P(P(n)+n)P(n) = -P(P(n)+n) for infinitely many integers nn.

Suppose that P(n)=P(P(n)+n)P(n) = P(P(n)+n) for infinitely many integers nn. This implies that the polynomial P(P(x)+x)P(x)P(P(x)+x) - P(x) has infinitely many roots and thus is identically zero. Therefore P(P(x)+x)=P(x)P(P(x)+x) = P(x) holds identically. Now note that if k2k \ge 2 then P(P(x)+x)P(P(x)+x) has degree k2k^2 while P(x)P(x) has degree kk, which is not possible. Therefore P(x)P(x) is at most linear with P(x)=ax+bP(x) = ax + b for some integers aa and bb. Now note that
P(P(x)+x)=a(a+1)x+ab+b P(P(x) + x) = a(a + 1)x + ab + b
and thus a=a(a+1)a = a(a + 1) and ab+b=bab + b = b. It follows that a=0a = 0 which leads to the solution P(n)=pP(n) = p where pp is a prime number.

By the same argument if P(n)=P(P(n)+n)P(n) = -P(P(n)+n) for infinitely many integers nn then P(x)=P(P(x)+x)P(x) = -P(P(x)+x) holds identically and P(x)P(x) is linear with P(x)=ax+bP(x) = ax + b. In this case it follows that a=a(a+1)a = -a(a + 1) and ab+b=bab + b = -b. This implies that either a=0a = 0 or a=2a = -2. If a=2a = -2 then P(n)=2n+bP(n) = -2n + b which is prime for some integers nn only if bb is odd. Note that in this case P(P(n)+n)=2nbP(P(n)+n) = 2n - b which is indeed prime for infinitely many integers nn as long as bb is odd. \square

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