Does there exist a two-variable polynomial with real number coefficients such that is positive exactly when and are both positive?
Solution
No. For any and positive and . Thus by continuity/IVT, for all positive . Similarly for all positive . This implies , and so we can write . But then this same logic holds for , and this cannot continue infinitely unless is identically 0 - in which case the conditions do not hold. So no such polynomial exists.
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