Problem:
Let be a polynomial all of whose roots are integers. Given that for all , find the sum of all possible values of .
Solution
Solution:
Since all the roots of are integers, we can factor it as for integers . By Vieta's formula, the product of the roots is , so we need three integers to multiply to .
cannot have two distinct positive roots since otherwise, would be negative at least in some infinitesimal region or , or for . Thus, in order to have two positive roots, we must have a double root. Since , the only positive double root is a perfect square factor of , which is at , giving us a possibility of .
Now we can consider when only has negative roots. The possible unordered triplets are which yield the polynomials
respectively.
Noticing that for four of these polynomials, we see that the nonzero values are , which sum to .
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