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Algebra Difficulty 6.1 National olympiad Prove it Silk Road Mathematics Competition

Determine all polynomials P(x)P(x) with real coefficients such that for any rational (number) rr the equation P(x)=rP(x) = r has a rational solution.

Solution

Answer: P(x)=ax+bP(x) = a x + b, where a0a \neq 0, bb are rational numbers.

Obviously, P(x)P(x) is not constant, so degP>0\deg P > 0.

First of all we prove that the coefficients of P(x)P(x) are rational numbers. Let degP=n\deg P = n, consider n+1n+1 distinct rational numbers r1,r2,,rn+1r_1, r_2, \dots, r_{n+1} and rationals x1,x2,,xn+1x_1, x_2, \dots, x_{n+1} such that P(xi)=ri,1in+1P(x_i) = r_i, \forall 1 \le i \le n+1. Then by the Lagrange's interpolation theorem we have
P(x)=i=1n+1riji(xxj)ji(xixj) P(x) = \sum_{i=1}^{n+1} r_i \frac{\prod_{j \neq i} (x - x_j)}{\prod_{j \neq i} (x_i - x_j)}
and it easily follows all coefficients of the polynomial are rational numbers.

Multiplying by appropriate integer we can assume that P(x)P(x) has integer coefficients (and, of course, it satisfies the condition of the problem).

Let ana_n be the leading coefficient of P(x)P(x), w.l.o.g. an>0a_n > 0 and let a0a_0 be the last coefficient of P(x)P(x).

Consider numbers rr of the kind r=p1+a0r = p_1 + a_0, where p1p_1 is a prime number. There exist an integer prp_r and a positive integer qrq_r with (pr,qr)=1(p_r, q_r) = 1 such that P(pr/qr)=rP(p_r/q_r) = r. Then it is easy to see that prra0=p1p_r \mid r - a_0 = p_1 and qranq_r \mid a_n, hence, pr{1,1,p1,p1}p_r \in \{-1, 1, -p_1, p_1\}.

There are infinitely many different rr, so taking them into consideration we obtain infinitely many different corresponding pairs (pr,qr)(p_r, q_r).

We state that among these pairs there are infinitely many (pr,qr)(p_r, q_r), for which pr{p1,p1}p_r \in \{-p_1, p_1\}, since otherwise pr/qr1|p_r/q_r| \le 1, but rr can take very large values; then at some moment the equation P(pr/qr)=rP(p_r/q_r) = r is impossible.

W.l.o.g. assume that there are infinitely many pairs (pr,qr)(p_r, q_r) with pr=p1p_r = p_1 (if sign is negative solution is similar). Since the number of divisors of ana_n is finite, there are infinitely many prime numbers p1p_1 and some constant dd (the divisor of ana_n) with P(p1/d)=p1+a0P(p_1/d) = p_1 + a_0.

Then consider another polynomial f(x)=P(x/d)f(x) = P(x/d). So, there are infinitely many numbers aZa \in \mathbb{Z} for which f(a)=a+a0f(a) = a + a_0 and, therefore, f(x)x+cf(x) \equiv x + c. Finally, we have that P(x)=dx+cP(x) = d x + c is a linear polynomial.

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