Maths Olympiad Prep

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Algebra Difficulty 5.3 AIME, harder Find the answer

Consider the polynomial P(x)=x3+x2x+2 P(x)=x^{3}+x^{2}-x+2 . Determine all real numbers r r for which there exists a complex number z z not in the reals such that P(z)=r P(z)=r .

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

Solution

Because such roots to polynomial equations come in conjugate pairs, we seek the values r r such that P(x)=r P(x)=r has just one real root x x . Considering the shape of a cubic, we are interested in the boundary values r r such that P(x)r P(x)-r has a repeated zero. Thus, we write P(x)r=x3+x2x+(2r)=(xp)2(xq)=x3(2p+q)x2+p(p+2q)xp2q P(x)-r=x^{3}+x^{2}-x+(2-r)=(x-p)^{2}(x-q)=x^{3}-(2 p+q) x^{2}+p(p+2 q) x-p^{2} q . Then q=2p1 q=-2 p-1 and 1=p(p+2q)=p(3p2) 1=p(p+2 q)=p(-3 p-2) so that p=1/3 p=1 / 3 or p=1 p=-1 . It follows that the graph of P(x) P(x) is horizontal at x=1/3 x=1 / 3 (a maximum) and x=1 x=-1 (a minimum), so the desired values r r are r>P(1)=3 r>P(-1)=3 and r<P(1/3)=1/27+1/91/3+2=49/27 r<P(1 / 3)=1 / 27+1 / 9-1 / 3+2=49 / 27 .

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