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Algebra Difficulty 4.8 AIME Find the answer United States

Problem:
Find the sum of squares of all distinct complex numbers xx satisfying the equation
0=4x107x9+5x88x7+12x612x5+12x48x3+5x27x+4 0 = 4 x^{10} - 7 x^{9} + 5 x^{8} - 8 x^{7} + 12 x^{6} - 12 x^{5} + 12 x^{4} - 8 x^{3} + 5 x^{2} - 7 x + 4

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

Solution:
Answer: 716-\frac{7}{16}

For convenience denote the polynomial by P(x)P(x). Notice 4+8=7+5=124+8=7+5=12 and that the consecutive terms 12x612x5+12x412 x^{6}-12 x^{5}+12 x^{4} are the leading terms of 12Φ14(x)12 \Phi_{14}(x), which is suggestive. Indeed, consider ω\omega a primitive 1414-th root of unity; since ω7=1\omega^{7}=-1, we have 4ω10=4ω34 \omega^{10}=-4 \omega^{3}, 7ω9=7ω2-7 \omega^{9}=7 \omega^{2}, and so on, so that
P(ω)=12(ω6ω5++1)=12Φ14(ω)=0 P(\omega)=12\left(\omega^{6}-\omega^{5}+\cdots+1\right)=12 \Phi_{14}(\omega)=0
Dividing, we find
P(x)=Φ14(x)(4x43x32x23x+4) P(x)=\Phi_{14}(x)\left(4 x^{4}-3 x^{3}-2 x^{2}-3 x+4\right)
This second polynomial is symmetric; since 00 is clearly not a root, we have
4x43x32x23x+4=04(x+1x)23(x+1x)10=0 4 x^{4}-3 x^{3}-2 x^{2}-3 x+4=0 \Longleftrightarrow 4\left(x+\frac{1}{x}\right)^{2}-3\left(x+\frac{1}{x}\right)-10=0
Setting y=x+1/xy=x+1/x and solving the quadratic gives y=2y=2 and y=5/4y=-5/4 as solutions; replacing yy with x+1/xx+1/x and solving the two resulting quadratics give the double root x=1x=1 and the roots (5±i39)/8(-5 \pm i \sqrt{39})/8 respectively. Together with the primitive fourteenth roots of unity, these are all the roots of our polynomial.

Explicitly, the roots are
eπi/7, e3πi/7, e5πi/7, e9πi/7, e11πi/7, e13πi/7, 1, (5±i39)/8 e^{\pi i / 7},\ e^{3 \pi i / 7},\ e^{5 \pi i / 7},\ e^{9 \pi i / 7},\ e^{11 \pi i / 7},\ e^{13 \pi i / 7},\ 1,\ (-5 \pm i \sqrt{39}) / 8
The sum of squares of the roots of unity (including 11) is just 00 by symmetry (or a number of other methods). The sum of the squares of the final conjugate pair is 2(5239)82=1432=716\frac{2\left(5^{2}-39\right)}{8^{2}}=-\frac{14}{32}=-\frac{7}{16}.

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