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Algebra Difficulty 6.7 National Olympiad Prove it Italy

Problem:

Let p(x)p(x) and q(x)q(x) be two distinct polynomials of degree less than or equal to 33, with integer coefficients and such that
p(1)=q(1),p(2)=q(2),p(3)=q(3),p(1)=q(1),p(2)=q(2),p(3)=q(3). \begin{gathered} p(1)=q(1), \quad p(2)=q(2), \quad p(3)=q(3), \\ p(-1)=-q(-1), \quad p(-2)=-q(-2), \quad p(-3)=-q(-3) . \end{gathered}
What is the minimum value that [p(0)]2+[q(0)]2[p(0)]^{2}+[q(0)]^{2} can take?

Solution

Solution:

The answer is 3636. The polynomial p(x)+q(x)p(x)+q(x) vanishes at x=1x=-1, x=2x=-2 and x=3x=-3; moreover it has degree less than or equal to 33 and has integer coefficients. Therefore, by Ruffini's theorem, it factors as p(x)+q(x)=k(x+1)(x+2)(x+3)p(x)+q(x)=k(x+1)(x+2)(x+3) with kk an integer. Similarly we observe that p(x)q(x)=h(x1)(x2)(x3)p(x)-q(x)=h(x-1)(x-2)(x-3) with hh an integer.
We have that
p(x)=12(k(x+1)(x+2)(x+3)+h(x1)(x2)(x3)) p(x)=\frac{1}{2}(k(x+1)(x+2)(x+3)+h(x-1)(x-2)(x-3))
from this equality it is easy to see that p(x)p(x) has integer coefficients if and only if kk and hh have the same parity. The condition for q(x)q(x) to have integer coefficients is exactly the same. The problem moreover requires that p(x)p(x) and q(x)q(x) be distinct, which happens if and only if h0h \neq 0.
Evaluating the two initial identities at x=0x=0 we obtain p(0)+q(0)=6kp(0)+q(0)=6k and p(0)q(0)=6hp(0)-q(0)=-6h. Squaring and adding these two equalities we find
(p(0)+q(0))2+(p(0)q(0))2=36(k2+h2) (p(0)+q(0))^{2}+(p(0)-q(0))^{2}=36\left(k^{2}+h^{2}\right)
that is 2([p(0)]2+[q(0)]2)=36(k2+h2)2 \cdot\left([p(0)]^{2}+[q(0)]^{2}\right)=36\left(k^{2}+h^{2}\right). In light of the previous observations, the minimum of k2+h2k^{2}+h^{2} is obtained for k=±1k= \pm 1 and h=±1h= \pm 1. Therefore the minimum value of [p(0)]2+[q(0)]2[p(0)]^{2}+[q(0)]^{2} is 1236((±1)2+(±1)2)=36\frac{1}{2} \cdot 36 \cdot\left(( \pm 1)^{2}+( \pm 1)^{2}\right)=36 .

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Source: MathNet, licensed CC-BY-4.0. Statement translated into English from it; metadata (topic, difficulty) added by this project.