Find the smallest positive integer k such that z10+z9+z6+z5+z4+z+1 divides zk−1.
A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.
Solution
Let Q(z) denote the polynomial divisor. We need that the roots of Q are k-th roots of unity. With this in mind, we might observe that solutions to z7=1 and z=1 are roots of Q, which leads to its factorization. Alternatively, we note that (z−1)Q(z)=z11−z9+z7−z4+z2−1=(z4−z2+1)(z7−1) Solving for the roots of the first factor, z2=21+i3=±cisπ/3 (we use the notation cis(x)=cos(x)+isin(x)) so that z=±cis(±π/6). These are primitive 12 -th roots of unity. The other roots of Q(z) are the primitive 7 -th roots of unity (we introduced z=1 by multiplication.) It follows that the answer is lcm[12,7]=84.
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