Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it United States

Problem:
There exists a polynomial PP of degree 55 with the following property: if zz is a complex number such that z5+2004z=1z^{5} + 2004 z = 1, then P(z2)=0P\left(z^{2}\right) = 0. Calculate the quotient P(1)/P(1)P(1) / P(-1).

Solution

Solution:
Let z1,,z5z_{1}, \ldots, z_{5} be the roots of Q(z)=z5+2004z1Q(z) = z^{5} + 2004 z - 1. We can check these are distinct (by using the fact that there's one in a small neighborhood of each root of z5+2004zz^{5} + 2004 z, or by noting that Q(z)Q(z) is relatively prime to its derivative). And certainly none of the roots of QQ is the negative of another, since z5+2004z=1z^{5} + 2004 z = 1 implies (z)5+2004(z)=1(-z)^{5} + 2004(-z) = -1, so their squares are distinct as well. Then, z12,,z52z_{1}^{2}, \ldots, z_{5}^{2} are the roots of PP, so if we write CC for the leading coefficient of PP, we have
P(1)P(1)=C(1z12)(1z52)C(1z12)(1z52)=[(1z1)(1z5)][(1+z1)(1+z5)][(iz1)(iz5)][(i+z1)(i+z5)]=[(1z1)(1z5)][(1z1)(1z5)][(iz1)(iz5)][(iz1)(iz5)]=(15+200411)(15+2004(1)1)(i5+2004i1)(i5+2004(i)1)=(2004)(2006)(1+2005i)(12005i)=20052120052+1=4020024/4020026=2010012/2010013. \begin{aligned} \frac{P(1)}{P(-1)} & = \frac{C\left(1-z_{1}^{2}\right) \cdots\left(1-z_{5}^{2}\right)}{C\left(-1-z_{1}^{2}\right) \cdots\left(-1-z_{5}^{2}\right)} \\ & = \frac{\left[\left(1-z_{1}\right) \cdots\left(1-z_{5}\right)\right] \cdot \left[\left(1+z_{1}\right) \cdots\left(1+z_{5}\right)\right]}{\left[\left(i-z_{1}\right) \cdots\left(i-z_{5}\right)\right] \cdot \left[\left(i+z_{1}\right) \cdots\left(i+z_{5}\right)\right]} \\ & = \frac{\left[\left(1-z_{1}\right) \cdots\left(1-z_{5}\right)\right] \cdot \left[\left(-1-z_{1}\right) \cdots\left(-1-z_{5}\right)\right]}{\left[\left(i-z_{1}\right) \cdots\left(i-z_{5}\right)\right] \cdot \left[\left(-i-z_{1}\right) \cdots\left(-i-z_{5}\right)\right]} \\ & = \frac{\left(1^{5} + 2004 \cdot 1 - 1\right)\left(-1^{5} + 2004 \cdot (-1) - 1\right)}{\left(i^{5} + 2004 \cdot i - 1\right)\left(-i^{5} + 2004 \cdot (-i) - 1\right)} \\ & = \frac{(2004)(-2006)}{(-1 + 2005 i)(-1 - 2005 i)} \\ & = -\frac{2005^{2} - 1}{2005^{2} + 1} \\ & = -4020024 / 4020026 = -2010012 / 2010013 . \end{aligned}

Alternative Solution: In fact, we can construct the polynomial PP explicitly (up to multiplication by a constant). We write P(z2)P\left(z^{2}\right) as a polynomial in zz; it must use only even powers of zz and be divisible by z5+2004z1z^{5} + 2004 z - 1, so we are inspired to try a difference of squares,
P(z2)=(z5+2004z1)(z5+2004z+1)=(z5+2004z)212=z2(z4+2004)21, P\left(z^{2}\right) = \left(z^{5} + 2004 z - 1\right)\left(z^{5} + 2004 z + 1\right) = \left(z^{5} + 2004 z\right)^{2} - 1^{2} = z^{2}\left(z^{4} + 2004\right)^{2} - 1,
giving
P(z)=z(z2+2004)21. P(z) = z\left(z^{2} + 2004\right)^{2} - 1 .
Now plugging in z=1z = 1 and z=1z = -1 rapidly gives (200521)/(200521)\left(2005^{2} - 1\right) / \left(-2005^{2} - 1\right) as before.

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