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Algebra Difficulty 7.4 National olympiad, round 2 Prove it South Africa

Determine all pairs (P,d)(P, d) of a polynomial PP with integer coefficients and an integer dd such that the equation P(x)P(y)=dP(x) - P(y) = d, where xx and yy are integers and xyx \neq y, has infinitely many solutions.

Solution

Note first that xyx - y divides P(x)P(y)P(x) - P(y). So if d0d \neq 0, there are only finitely many possibilities for xyx - y. For one of these possible values, let us denote it by aa, there must be

infinitely many pairs (x,y)(x, y) such that xy=ax - y = a and P(x)P(y)=dP(x) - P(y) = d. Note that
P(x)P(xa)d P(x) - P(x - a) - d
is still a polynomial. The only way it can have infinitely many zeros is that it is identically zero. But then P(x)=dx/a+bP(x) = dx/a + b for some number bb.
This gives us the first set of solutions, consisting of an arbitrary integer dd and a polynomial P(x)=dx/a+bP(x) = dx/a + b, where aa is a (positive or negative) divisor of dd and bb an arbitrary integer. This includes the solution where d=0d = 0 and the polynomial P(x)P(x) is constant.
For the rest of this solution, we can assume that d=0d = 0. If the degree of the polynomial is odd, then there exist integers AA and BB such that P(x)P(x) is either increasing for xAx \ge A and for xBx \le B, or decreasing for xAx \ge A and xBx \le B. If P(x)P(x) is increasing for xAx \ge A, then P(A)P(A), P(A+1)P(A + 1), P(A+2)P(A + 2), ... are a strictly increasing sequence of integers, thus distinct. Moreover, from some point on these numbers are all greater than the maximum of P(x)P(x) for xAx \le A. Likewise, P(B)P(B), P(B1)P(B - 1), P(B2)P(B - 2), ... are a strictly decreasing sequence of integers, and from some point on they are all less than the minimum of P(x)P(x) for xBx \ge B. This means that there cannot be infinitely many pairs x,yx, y with xyx \ne y such that P(x)P(y)=0P(x) - P(y) = 0. The same argument applies if P(x)P(x) is decreasing for xAx \ge A and xBx \le B.
Thus P(x)P(x) must be a polynomial of even degree. Now there exist integers AA and BB such that P(x)P(x) is increasing for xAx \ge A and decreasing for xBx \le B, or vice versa. Thus there can only be infinitely many pairs x,yx, y with xyx \ne y such that P(x)P(y)=0P(x) - P(y) = 0 if one of the two (x,y)(x, y) is A\ge A while the other is B\le B. We show that x+yx + y has to be constant for these solutions. Let the first terms of the polynomial be as follows:
P(x)=axn+bxn1+ P(x) = ax^n + bx^{n-1} + \dots
Assume that aa is positive, for otherwise one can replace P(x)P(x) by P(x)-P(x). If an(x+y)2b+1an(x+y) \ge -2b+1, then we have
P(x)P(2b+1anx)=xn1+, P(x) - P\left(\frac{-2b+1}{an} - x\right) = x^{n-1} + \dots,
where the dots stand for terms involving lower powers of xx. For large enough xx, this will be strictly positive, so P(x)P(y)0P(x) - P(y) \ne 0. Likewise, if an(x+y)2b1an(x + y) \le -2b - 1, then we have
P(x)P(2b1anx)=xn1+, P(x) - P\left(\frac{-2b-1}{an} - x\right) = -x^{n-1} + \dots,
which is negative for large enough xx. Hence P(x)P(y)0P(x) - P(y) \ne 0 in this case as well. Thus there must be infinitely many solutions of P(x)P(y)=0P(x) - P(y) = 0 with an(x+y)=2ban(x + y) = -2b. In this case,
P(x)P(2banx) P(x) - P\left(\frac{-2b}{an} - x\right)
is a polynomial with infinitely many zeros, hence it is constant. Thus
P(x)=P(2banx) P(x) = P\left(\frac{-2b}{an} - x\right)
for all xx, which gives
Q(x)=P(ban+x)=P(banx)=Q(x) Q(x) = P\left(\frac{-b}{an} + x\right) = P\left(\frac{-b}{an} - x\right) = Q(-x)
for all xx. It follows that the polynomial Q(x)Q(x) can only contain even powers of xx, i.e. Q(x)=R(x2)Q(x) = R(x^2). This gives us the second set of solutions, consisting of a polynomial of the form P(x)=R((xc)2)P(x) = R((x-c)^2), where 2c2c is an integer, and d=0d=0.

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