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Algebra Difficulty 6.3 National olympiad Find the answer

Let m0m \neq 0 be an integer. Find all polynomials P(x)P(x) with real coefficients such that
(x3mx2+1)P(x+1)+(x3+mx2+1)P(x1)=2(x3mx+1)P(x) \left(x^{3}-m x^{2}+1\right) P(x+1)+\left(x^{3}+m x^{2}+1\right) P(x-1)=2\left(x^{3}-m x+1\right) P(x)
for all real numbers xx. (Serbia) Answer. P(x)=txP(x)=t x for any real number tt.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Let P(x)=anxn++a0x0P(x)=a_{n} x^{n}+\cdots+a_{0} x^{0} with an0a_{n} \neq 0. Comparing the coefficients of xn+1x^{n+1} on both sides gives an(n2m)(n1)=0a_{n}(n-2 m)(n-1)=0, so n=1n=1 or n=2mn=2 m. If n=1n=1, one easily verifies that P(x)=xP(x)=x is a solution, while P(x)=1P(x)=1 is not. Since the given condition is linear in PP, this means that the linear solutions are precisely P(x)=txP(x)=t x for tRt \in \mathbb{R}. Now assume that n=2mn=2 m. The polynomial xP(x+1)(x+1)P(x)=(n1)anxn+x P(x+1)-(x+1) P(x)=(n-1) a_{n} x^{n}+\cdots has degree nn, and therefore it has at least one (possibly complex) root rr. If r{0,1}r \notin\{0,-1\}, define k=P(r)/r=P(r+1)/(r+1)k=P(r) / r=P(r+1) /(r+1). If r=0r=0, let k=P(1)k=P(1). If r=1r=-1, let k=P(1)k=-P(-1). We now consider the polynomial S(x)=P(x)kxS(x)=P(x)-k x. It also satisfies (1) because P(x)P(x) and kxk x satisfy it. Additionally, it has the useful property that rr and r+1r+1 are roots. Let A(x)=x3mx2+1A(x)=x^{3}-m x^{2}+1 and B(x)=x3+mx2+1B(x)=x^{3}+m x^{2}+1. Plugging in x=sx=s into (1) implies that: If s1s-1 and ss are roots of SS and ss is not a root of AA, then s+1s+1 is a root of SS. If ss and s+1s+1 are roots of SS and ss is not a root of BB, then s1s-1 is a root of SS. Let a0a \geqslant 0 and b1b \geqslant 1 be such that ra,ra+1,,r,r+1,,r+b1,r+br-a, r-a+1, \ldots, r, r+1, \ldots, r+b-1, r+b are roots of SS, while ra1r-a-1 and r+b+1r+b+1 are not. The two statements above imply that rar-a is a root of BB and r+br+b is a root of AA. Since rar-a is a root of B(x)B(x) and of A(x+a+b)A(x+a+b), it is also a root of their greatest common divisor C(x)C(x) as integer polynomials. If C(x)C(x) was a non-trivial divisor of B(x)B(x), then BB would have a rational root α\alpha. Since the first and last coefficients of BB are 1,α1, \alpha can only be 1 or -1 ; but B(1)=m>0B(-1)=m>0 and B(1)=m+2>0B(1)=m+2>0 since n=2mn=2 m. Therefore B(x)=A(x+a+b)B(x)=A(x+a+b). Writing c=a+b1c=a+b \geqslant 1 we compute 0=A(x+c)B(x)=(3c2m)x2+c(3c2m)x+c2(cm). 0=A(x+c)-B(x)=(3 c-2 m) x^{2}+c(3 c-2 m) x+c^{2}(c-m) . Then we must have 3c2m=cm=03 c-2 m=c-m=0, which gives m=0m=0, a contradiction. We conclude that f(x)=txf(x)=t x is the only solution.

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.