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Algebra Difficulty 4.7 AIME Prove it Hong Kong

Find all polynomials f(x)f(x) such that f(f(x))=(f(x))mf(f(x)) = (f(x))^m, where m>1m > 1 is a fixed integer. Substantiate your answer.

Solution

The solutions are f(x)=0f(x) = 0, f(x)=1f(x) = 1, f(x)=ωf(x) = \omega where ω\omega is an (m1)(m-1)st root of unity, and f(x)=xmf(x) = x^m.

If f(x)=cf(x) = c is a constant polynomial, then the relation holds if and only if c=cmc = c^m.
Clearly, the solutions are c=0,1c = 0, 1 and all the (m1)(m-1)st roots of unity.

If ff is a non-constant polynomial, then f(x)f(x) attains infinitely many values.
Thus, there are infinitely many yy such that f(y)=ymf(y) = y^m. Since ff is a polynomial,
this implies f(x)=xmf(x) = x^m for any xx.

It is easy to check that all these are solutions.

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