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Algebra Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Let dnd_n be the determinant of the n×nn \times n matrix whose entries, from
left to right and then from top to bottom, are $\cos 1, \cos 2, \dots, \cos
n^2$. Evaluate
limndn\lim_{n\to\infty} d_n.

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

Solution

The limit is 00; we will show this by checking that dn=0d_n = 0 for all n3n \geq 3.
Starting from the given matrix, add the third column to the first column; this does not change the
determinant. However, thanks to the identity
cosx+cosy=2cosx+y2cosxy2\cos x + \cos y = 2 \cos \frac{x+y}{2} \cos \frac{x-y}{2},
the resulting matrix has the form
(2cos2cos1cos22cos(n+2)cos1cos(n+2)2cos(2n+2)cos12cos(2n+2)) \begin{pmatrix} 2 \cos 2 \cos 1 & \cos 2 & \cdots \\ 2 \cos (n+2) \cos 1 & \cos (n+2) & \cdots \\ 2 \cos (2n+2) \cos 1 & 2 \cos (2n+2) & \cdots \\ \vdots & \vdots & \ddots \end{pmatrix}
with the first column being a multiple of the second. Hence dn=0d_n = 0.

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