A polynomial in two variables , is called homogeneous of degree if all its terms are constant multiples of for some integer with . Fix and suppose that and are two homogeneous polynomials of degree , such that for all integers satisfying . Prove that for all and .
Solution
Consider the homogeneous polynomial ; it can be written as
By assumption we have for . For and we get and . Therefore,
and each term of is divisible by . If , this means that . For there is a homogeneous polynomial of degree such that .
Our aim is to show that and so we can assume . From the univariate polynomial we can recover , because
This is so because is homogeneous and . To prove that it is therefore sufficient to show that .
By assumption we have for . From we deduce that the distinct numbers are roots of the polynomial . Because the degree of is at most the degree of , which was equal to , this implies that and so as well.
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