Maths Olympiad Prep

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, 2020

Algebra Difficulty 6.0 National Olympiad Prove it United States

Problem:
Let P(x)=x2020+x+2P(x) = x^{2020} + x + 2, which has 20202020 distinct roots. Let Q(x)Q(x) be the monic polynomial of degree (20202)\binom{2020}{2} whose roots are the pairwise products of the roots of P(x)P(x). Let α\alpha satisfy P(α)=4P(\alpha) = 4. Compute the sum of all possible values of Q(α2)2Q\left(\alpha^{2}\right)^{2}.

Solution

Solution:
Let P(x)P(x) have degree n=2020n = 2020 with roots r1,,rnr_{1}, \ldots, r_{n}. Let R(x)=i(xri2)R(x) = \prod_{i} \left(x - r_{i}^{2}\right). Then
irinP(xri)=ij(xrirj)=Q(x)2R(x) \prod_{i} r_{i}^{n} P\left(\frac{x}{r_{i}}\right) = \prod_{i} \prod_{j} \left(x - r_{i} r_{j}\right) = Q(x)^{2} R(x)
Using R(x2)=(1)nP(x)P(x)R\left(x^{2}\right) = (-1)^{n} P(x) P(-x) and Vieta, we obtain
P(x)P(x)Q(x2)2=P(0)niP(x2ri) P(x) P(-x) Q\left(x^{2}\right)^{2} = P(0)^{n} \prod_{i} P\left(\frac{x^{2}}{r_{i}}\right)
Plugging in x=αx = \alpha, we use the facts that P(α)=4P(\alpha) = 4, P(α)=42αP(-\alpha) = 4 - 2 \alpha, and also
P(α2ri)=α4040ri2020+α2ri+2=(α2)2ri+2+α2ri+2=2(αri)2ri(ri+2). P\left(\frac{\alpha^{2}}{r_{i}}\right) = \frac{\alpha^{4040}}{r_{i}^{2020}} + \frac{\alpha^{2}}{r_{i}} + 2 = -\frac{(\alpha-2)^{2}}{r_{i}+2} + \frac{\alpha^{2}}{r_{i}} + 2 = \frac{2\left(-\alpha - r_{i}\right)^{2}}{r_{i}\left(r_{i}+2\right)}.
This will give us
P(α)P(α)Q(α2)2=2ni2(αri)2ri(ri+2)=2n2nP(α)2P(0)P(2) P(\alpha) P(-\alpha) Q\left(\alpha^{2}\right)^{2} = 2^{n} \prod_{i} \frac{2\left(-\alpha - r_{i}\right)^{2}}{r_{i}\left(r_{i}+2\right)} = 2^{n} \cdot \frac{2^{n} P(-\alpha)^{2}}{P(0) P(-2)}
Therefore,
Q(α2)2=4nP(α)P(0)P(2)P(α)=4n(42α)2220204=24041(2α)22023=22018(2α) \begin{aligned} Q\left(\alpha^{2}\right)^{2} & = \frac{4^{n} P(-\alpha)}{P(0) P(-2) P(\alpha)} \\ & = \frac{4^{n}(4-2 \alpha)}{2 \cdot 2^{2020} \cdot 4} \\ & = \frac{2^{4041}(2-\alpha)}{2^{2023}} \\ & = 2^{2018}(2-\alpha) \end{aligned}
We can check that P(x)4P(x) - 4 has no double roots (e.g. by checking that it shares no roots with its derivative), which means that all possible α\alpha are distinct. Therefore, adding over all α\alpha gives 2020220192020 \cdot 2^{2019}, because the sum of the roots of P(x)4P(x) - 4 is 00.

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