Find all the functions such that
i. For all we have ;
ii. For all , we have if and only if is square-free.
(We call a polynomial square-free if there is no non-constant polynomial such that divides .)
Find all the functions such that
i. For all we have ;
ii. For all , we have if and only if is square-free.
(We call a polynomial square-free if there is no non-constant polynomial such that divides .)
Take any polynomial with rational coefficients then the function meets the condition of the problem if and only if satisfies. Where is a polynomial with rational coefficients. We shall prove this claim in one direction. In the opposite direction, just change by . Indeed, . The second property would indeed follow from the Euclidean algorithm. Since then .
We can then assume that . After this, it suffices to show that satisfies the statement of problem for some non-zero rational .
Notice that for all integers and further for all rational numbers we have . Then, if we put it follows that . Thus, it would only suffices to prove that . For it is clear. Now consider for some rational number and some integer . Notice that
f((x - r)^n) = f(x^n) + n f(x) ((x - r)^{n-1} - x^{n-1})
That is, . Applying the second condition, it follows that divides the left. Hence, it should divide the right. Since the right side doesn't depend on , it follows that it must have infinitely many linear factors implies that it must be zero. Therefore, . Now, it follows that . We shall then need to prove that for some non-zero rational number . Assume on the contrary, let for some non-constant polynomial with rational coefficients, then consider an irreducible factor of it with rational coefficients then divides . Hence, divides . But, since is irreducible, it would also be square-free. Yielding . Hence, . All in all, the solutions are of the form , for some non-zero rational number and any polynomial with rational coefficients.