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6-th Czech-Slovak Match

Number theory Difficulty 5.1 AIME, harder Prove it Czech Republic

Let P(x)P(x) be a polynomial with integer coefficients. Prove that the polynomial Q(x)=P(x4)P(x3)P(x2)P(x)+1Q(x) = P(x^4)P(x^3)P(x^2)P(x) + 1 has no integer roots.

Solution

By the Little Fermat theorem n3≡n(mod3)n^3 \equiv n \pmod{3} for every n∈Zn \in \mathbb{Z}. Then also n4≡n2(mod3)n^4 \equiv n^2 \pmod{3}. Since P(x)P(x) is a polynomial with all integer coefficients, it follows that
P(n3)≡P(n)(mod3),P(n4)≡P(n2)(mod3) P(n^3) \equiv P(n) \pmod{3}, \quad P(n^4) \equiv P(n^2) \pmod{3}
Polynomial Q(x)Q(x) has integer coefficients therefore, from the last two congruences, we get
Q(n)≡(P(n)P(n2))2+1(mod3) Q(n) \equiv (P(n)P(n^2))^2 + 1 \pmod{3}
But we can easily see that for every integer mm we have m2+1≢0(mod3)m^2 + 1 \not\equiv 0 \pmod{3}. So for every integer number nn, we have Q(n)≢0(mod3)Q(n) \not\equiv 0 \pmod{3}, from which it follows that polynomial Q(x)Q(x) can not have integer roots. The proof is finished. □\square

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