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Algebra Difficulty 8.7 Shortlist Prove it China

Given an integer n>1n > 1, let the real number x>1x > 1 satisfy
x101nx100+nx1=0. x^{101} - n x^{100} + n x - 1 = 0.
Prove that for any real numbers 0<a<b<10 < a < b < 1, there exists a positive integer mm such that
a<{xm}<b. a < \{x^m\} < b.
Here {t}=tt\{t\} = t - \lfloor t \rfloor denotes the fractional part of the real number tt.

Solution

Proof. We will sequentially prove the following conclusions:

(1) The equation (5) has 99 roots with modulus equal to 1.

Clearly, x=1x = 1 is a root of the equation (5). Consider the equation
x101nx100+nx1x1=0, \frac{x^{101} - n x^{100} + n x - 1}{x - 1} = 0,
i.e.,
f(x)=x100(n1)j=199xj+1=0. f(x) = x^{100} - (n - 1) \sum_{j=1}^{99} x^j + 1 = 0.
Consider all 100th roots of unity ω\omega, it is easy to see that f(ω)=n+1f(\omega) = n + 1.
Notice that f(x)x50\frac{f(x)}{x^{50}} can be expressed as g(x+1x)g(x + \frac{1}{x}), where g(x)Z[x]g(x) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]. Therefore,
g(2coskπ50)=(eikπ/50)50f(eikπ/50)=(n+1)(1)k,k=0,1,2,,49. g\left(2 \cos \frac{k\pi}{50}\right) = \left(e^{ik\pi/50}\right)^{50} f\left(e^{ik\pi/50}\right) = (n+1)(-1)^k, \quad k = 0, 1, 2, \dots, 49.
This shows that g(2cosθ)g(2 \cos \theta) has a root in the interval (kπ50,(k+1)π50)(\frac{k\pi}{50}, \frac{(k+1)\pi}{50}) with θ=θk\theta = \theta_k (k=0,1,2,,48k = 0, 1, 2, \dots, 48).
Therefore, g(x)g(x) has 49 pairs of conjugate complex roots cosθk±isinθk\cos \theta_k \pm i \sin \theta_k. Thus, f(x)f(x) has 98 roots with modulus equal to 1, and hence the original equation (5) has 99 roots with modulus equal to 1.

(2) f(x)f(x) has a root α\alpha greater than 1.

This is because f(1)=299(n1)<0f(1) = 2 - 99(n - 1) < 0, which follows from the intermediate value theorem.
Combining f(0)=1>0f(0) = 1 > 0 and the fact that the product of all roots of f(x)f(x) is 1, we know that besides the 99 roots with modulus equal to 1, the remaining two roots are α\alpha and 1α\frac{1}{\alpha}.

(3) The 99 roots of f(x)f(x) with modulus equal to 1 are not all roots of unity.

If any of these roots are roots of unity, the cyclotomic polynomial corresponding to that root divides f(x)f(x). Therefore, if they are all roots of unity, this means (xα)(x1α)=x2Ax+1(x - \alpha)(x - \frac{1}{\alpha}) = x^2 - A x + 1, where AA is a positive integer.
If An+1A \ge n + 1, then αn\alpha \ge n, thus α101nα100+nα1>0\alpha^{101} - n\alpha^{100} + n\alpha - 1 > 0, which is a contradiction!
If AnA \le n, then using (α+1)(α2Aα+1)=α3(A1)α2(A1)α+1(\alpha + 1)(\alpha^2 - A\alpha + 1) = \alpha^3 - (A - 1)\alpha^2 - (A - 1)\alpha + 1, we get
α3<(A1)α2+(A1)α(n1)α2+(n1)α. \alpha^3 < (A - 1)\alpha^2 + (A - 1)\alpha \le (n - 1)\alpha^2 + (n - 1)\alpha.
Therefore,
α100(n1)(α99+α98++α+1)<(n+1)(α97++α)+1<0, \alpha^{100} - (n - 1)(\alpha^{99} + \alpha^{98} + \dots + \alpha + 1) < -(n + 1)(\alpha^{97} + \dots + \alpha) + 1 < 0,
which is a contradiction!
Thus, the assumption is not valid, meaning that the roots of (5) are not all roots of unity.

Since the powers of the roots of unity are finite in number, and using Newton's identities, we know that the sum of the powers of all roots of the original equation are integers. To prove the original problem, we need to show the following conclusion:

If z1,z2,,zkz_1, z_2, \dots, z_k are complex numbers with modulus 1 but not roots of unity, then the fractional parts of Sr=j=1k(zjr+zˉjr)S_r = \sum_{j=1}^k (z_j^r + \bar{z}_j^r) are dense in (0,1)(0, 1).
That is:
If λ1,,λk\lambda_1, \dots, \lambda_k are irrational numbers, then the fractional parts of Tr=j=1kcos(2rλjπ)T_r = \sum_{j=1}^k \cos(2r\lambda_j\pi) are dense in (0,1)(0, 1).

Consider a sufficiently large positive integer NN, and define the sequence
Xr=(N{rλ1},,N{rλk})(r=1,2,,Nk+1). X_r = (\lfloor N\{r\lambda_1\}\rfloor, \dots, \lfloor N\{r\lambda_k\}\rfloor) \quad (r = 1, 2, \dots, N^k + 1).
By the pigeonhole principle, there exist r1<r2r_1 < r_2 such that Xr1=Xr2X_{r_1} = X_{r_2}. This means that for s=r2r1s = r_2 - r_1, {sλj}\{s\lambda_j\} is either less than 1N\frac{1}{N} or greater than 11N1 - \frac{1}{N}, which implies cos(2sλjπ)>cos2πN\cos(2s\lambda_j\pi) > \cos\frac{2\pi}{N}. Therefore, Ts>kcos2πNT_s > k \cos\frac{2\pi}{N}.
On the other hand, since {sλ1}0\{s\lambda_1\} \neq 0, there exists a positive integer tt such that t{sλ1}12<1N|t\{s\lambda_1\} - \frac{1}{2}| < \frac{1}{N}, hence cos(2stλ1π)<cos2πN\cos(2st\lambda_1\pi) < -\cos\frac{2\pi}{N}. Therefore, Tst<(k1)cos2πNT_{st} < (k-1) - \cos\frac{2\pi}{N}.
But we know,
T(d+1)sTds=j=1k(cos(2(d+1)sλjπ)cos(2dsλjπ))=j=1k2sin(sλjπ)sin((2d+1)sλjπ)j=1k2sin(sλjπ)<2ksin2πN, \begin{aligned} |T_{(d+1)s} - T_{ds}| &= \left| \sum_{j=1}^{k} (\cos(2(d+1)s\lambda_j\pi) - \cos(2ds\lambda_j\pi)) \right| \\ &= \left| \sum_{j=1}^{k} 2 \sin(s\lambda_j\pi) \sin((2d+1)s\lambda_j\pi) \right| \\ &\le \sum_{j=1}^{k} |2 \sin(s\lambda_j\pi)| < 2k \sin \frac{2\pi}{N}, \end{aligned}
therefore, by taking NN sufficiently large, using the discrete intermediate value theorem, we can see that TrT_r is dense in (k32,k12)(k - \frac{3}{2}, k - \frac{1}{2}).

The desired conclusion is thus proven. □

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