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Algebra Difficulty 6.3 National Olympiad Prove it New Zealand

Problem:
Find all non-zero real numbers aa, bb, cc such that the following polynomial has four (not necessarily distinct) positive real roots.

P(x)=ax48ax3+bx232cx+16cP(x) = a x^{4} - 8a x^{3} + b x^{2} - 32c x + 16c

Solution

Solution:
Assume that P(x)P(x) has 4 positive real roots x1x_{1}, x2x_{2}, x3x_{3} and x4x_{4}. Using Viete's theorem, one can obtain the following equations

x1+x2+x3+x4=8aa=8x1x2+x1x3+x1x4+x2x3+x2x4+x3x4=bax1x2x3+x1x2x4+x1x3x4+x2x3x4=32cax1x2x3x4=16ca(5) \begin{array}{c} x_{1} + x_{2} + x_{3} + x_{4} = \frac{8a}{a} = 8 \\ x_{1}x_{2} + x_{1}x_{3} + x_{1}x_{4} + x_{2}x_{3} + x_{2}x_{4} + x_{3}x_{4} = \frac{b}{a} \\ x_{1}x_{2}x_{3} + x_{1}x_{2}x_{4} + x_{1}x_{3}x_{4} + x_{2}x_{3}x_{4} = \frac{32c}{a} \\ x_{1}x_{2}x_{3}x_{4} = \frac{16c}{a} \end{array} \quad (5)
From 4 and 5, we have

1x1+1x2+1x3+1x4=x1x2x3+x1x2x4+x1x3x4+x2x3x4x1x2x3x4=32ca16ca=2(6) \frac{1}{x_{1}} + \frac{1}{x_{2}} + \frac{1}{x_{3}} + \frac{1}{x_{4}} = \frac{x_{1}x_{2}x_{3} + x_{1}x_{2}x_{4} + x_{1}x_{3}x_{4} + x_{2}x_{3}x_{4}}{x_{1}x_{2}x_{3}x_{4}} = \frac{\frac{32c}{a}}{\frac{16c}{a}} = 2 \quad (6)
Using AM-GM (arithmetic mean geometric mean inequality) on the sums in equation (2) and (6) we get

84=x1+x2+x3+x44x1x2x3x44 \frac{8}{4} = \frac{x_{1} + x_{2} + x_{3} + x_{4}}{4} \geqslant \sqrt[4]{x_{1} \cdot x_{2} \cdot x_{3} \cdot x_{4}}

24=1x1+1x2+1x3+1x441x11x21x31x44 \frac{2}{4} = \frac{\frac{1}{x_{1}} + \frac{1}{x_{2}} + \frac{1}{x_{3}} + \frac{1}{x_{4}}}{4} \geqslant \sqrt[4]{\frac{1}{x_{1}} \cdot \frac{1}{x_{2}} \cdot \frac{1}{x_{3}} \cdot \frac{1}{x_{4}}}
Multiplying these together yields 111 \geqslant 1 and so equality must occur in both AM-GM's. Therefore x1=x2=x3=x4x_{1} = x_{2} = x_{3} = x_{4}. Furthermore for Equation (2) we get x1=x2=x3=x4=2x_{1} = x_{2} = x_{3} = x_{4} = 2. Substituting this into equation (3) gives us b=24ab = 24a. Substituting this into equation (5) gives us c=ac = a. So (a,b,c)=(a,24a,a)(a, b, c) = (a, 24a, a) where aa is any non-zero real number, and the polynomial P(x)P(x) is

P(x)=a(xx1)(xx2)(xx3)(xx4)=a(x2)4.P(x) = a(x - x_{1})(x - x_{2})(x - x_{3})(x - x_{4}) = a(x - 2)^{4}.

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement reproduced verbatim; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.