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Algebra Difficulty 5.5 AIME, harder Find the answer

Find the sum of squares of all distinct complex numbers xx satisfying the equation 0=4x107x9+5x88x7+12x612x5+12x48x3+5x27x+40=4 x^{10}-7 x^{9}+5 x^{8}-8 x^{7}+12 x^{6}-12 x^{5}+12 x^{4}-8 x^{3}+5 x^{2}-7 x+4

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

Solution

For convenience denote the polynomial by P(x)P(x). Notice 4+8=7+5=124+8=7+5=12 and that the consecutive terms 12x612x5+12x412 x^{6}-12 x^{5}+12 x^{4} are the leading terms of 12Φ14(x)12 \Phi_{14}(x), which is suggestive. Indeed, consider ω\omega a primitive 14 -th root of unity; since ω7=1\omega^{7}=-1, we have 4ω10=4ω3,7ω9=7ω24 \omega^{10}=-4 \omega^{3},-7 \omega^{9}=7 \omega^{2}, and so on, so that P(ω)=12(ω6ω5++1)=12Φ14(ω)=0P(\omega)=12\left(\omega^{6}-\omega^{5}+\cdots+1\right)=12 \Phi_{14}(\omega)=0. Dividing, we find P(x)=Φ14(x)(4x43x32x23x+4)P(x)=\Phi_{14}(x)\left(4 x^{4}-3 x^{3}-2 x^{2}-3 x+4\right). This second polynomial is symmetric; since 0 is clearly not a root, we have 4x43x32x23x+4=04(x+1x)23(x+1x)10=04 x^{4}-3 x^{3}-2 x^{2}-3 x+4=0 \Longleftrightarrow 4\left(x+\frac{1}{x}\right)^{2}-3\left(x+\frac{1}{x}\right)-10=0. Setting y=x+1/xy=x+1 / x and solving the quadratic gives y=2y=2 and y=5/4y=-5 / 4 as solutions; replacing yy with x+1/xx+1 / x and solving the two resulting quadratics give the double root x=1x=1 and the roots (5±i39)/8(-5 \pm i \sqrt{39}) / 8 respectively. Together with the primitive fourteenth roots of unity, these are all the roots of our polynomial. Explicitly, the roots are eπi/7,e3πi/7,e5πi/7,e9πi/7,e11πi/7,e13πi/7,1,(5±i39)/8e^{\pi i / 7}, e^{3 \pi i / 7}, e^{5 \pi i / 7}, e^{9 \pi i / 7}, e^{11 \pi i / 7}, e^{13 \pi i / 7}, 1,(-5 \pm i \sqrt{39}) / 8. The sum of squares of the roots of unity (including 1) is just 0 by symmetry (or a number of other methods). The sum of the squares of the final conjugate pair is 2(5239)82=1432=716\frac{2\left(5^{2}-39\right)}{8^{2}}=-\frac{14}{32}=-\frac{7}{16}.

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