Given an integer n>1, let the real number x>1 satisfy x101−nx100+nx−1=0. Prove that for any real numbers 0<a<b<1, there exists a positive integer m such that a<{xm}<b. Here {t}=t−⌊t⌋ denotes the fractional part of the real number t.
Solution
Proof. We will sequentially prove the following conclusions:
(1) The equation (5) has 99 roots with modulus equal to 1.
Clearly, x=1 is a root of the equation (5). Consider the equation x−1x101−nx100+nx−1=0, i.e., f(x)=x100−(n−1)j=1∑99xj+1=0. Consider all 100th roots of unity ω, it is easy to see that f(ω)=n+1. Notice that x50f(x) can be expressed as g(x+x1), where g(x)∈Z[x]. Therefore, g(2cos50kπ)=(eikπ/50)50f(eikπ/50)=(n+1)(−1)k,k=0,1,2,…,49. This shows that g(2cosθ) has a root in the interval (50kπ,50(k+1)π) with θ=θk (k=0,1,2,…,48). Therefore, g(x) has 49 pairs of conjugate complex roots cosθk±isinθk. Thus, 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) has a root α greater than 1.
This is because f(1)=2−99(n−1)<0, which follows from the intermediate value theorem. Combining f(0)=1>0 and the fact that the product of all roots of f(x) is 1, we know that besides the 99 roots with modulus equal to 1, the remaining two roots are α and α1.
(3) The 99 roots of 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). Therefore, if they are all roots of unity, this means (x−α)(x−α1)=x2−Ax+1, where A is a positive integer. If A≥n+1, then α≥n, thus α101−nα100+nα−1>0, which is a contradiction! If A≤n, then using (α+1)(α2−Aα+1)=α3−(A−1)α2−(A−1)α+1, we get α3<(A−1)α2+(A−1)α≤(n−1)α2+(n−1)α. Therefore, α100−(n−1)(α99+α98+⋯+α+1)<−(n+1)(α97+⋯+α)+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,…,zk are complex numbers with modulus 1 but not roots of unity, then the fractional parts of Sr=∑j=1k(zjr+zˉjr) are dense in (0,1). That is: If λ1,…,λk are irrational numbers, then the fractional parts of Tr=∑j=1kcos(2rλjπ) are dense in (0,1).
Consider a sufficiently large positive integer N, and define the sequence Xr=(⌊N{rλ1}⌋,…,⌊N{rλk}⌋)(r=1,2,…,Nk+1). By the pigeonhole principle, there exist r1<r2 such that Xr1=Xr2. This means that for s=r2−r1, {sλj} is either less than N1 or greater than 1−N1, which implies cos(2sλjπ)>cosN2π. Therefore, Ts>kcosN2π. On the other hand, since {sλ1}=0, there exists a positive integer t such that ∣t{sλ1}−21∣<N1, hence cos(2stλ1π)<−cosN2π. Therefore, Tst<(k−1)−cosN2π. But we know, ∣T(d+1)s−Tds∣=j=1∑k(cos(2(d+1)sλjπ)−cos(2dsλjπ))=j=1∑k2sin(sλjπ)sin((2d+1)sλjπ)≤j=1∑k∣2sin(sλjπ)∣<2ksinN2π, therefore, by taking N sufficiently large, using the discrete intermediate value theorem, we can see that Tr is dense in (k−23,k−21).
The desired conclusion is thus proven. □
Want a route through all this instead of an archive? The track
puts 2,000 problems in a working order, from AMC 10 level to the IMO shortlist.
Source: MathNet,
licensed CC-BY-4.0.
Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.