Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Let f(x)f(x) be a degree 2006 polynomial with complex roots c1,c2,,c2006c_{1}, c_{2}, \ldots, c_{2006}, such that the set {c1,c2,,c2006}\left\{\left|c_{1}\right|,\left|c_{2}\right|, \ldots,\left|c_{2006}\right|\right\} consists of exactly 1006 distinct values. What is the minimum number of real roots of f(x)f(x) ?

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

Solution

The complex roots of the polynomial must come in pairs, cic_{i} and ci\overline{c_{i}}, both of which have the same absolute value. If nn is the number of distinct absolute values ci\left|c_{i}\right| corresponding to those of non-real roots, then there are at least 2n2 n non-real roots of f(x)f(x). Thus f(x)f(x) can have at most 20062n2006-2 n real roots. However, it must have at least 1006n1006-n real roots, as ci\left|c_{i}\right| takes on 1006n1006-n more values. By definition of nn, these all correspond to real roots. Therefore 1006n#1006-n \leq \# real roots 20062n\leq 2006-2 n, so n1000n \leq 1000, and \# real roots 1006n6\geq 1006-n \geq 6. It is easy to see that equality is attainable.

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