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Algebra Difficulty 5.7 AIME, harder Find the answer

How many polynomials of degree exactly 5 with real coefficients send the set \{1,2,3,4,5,6\} to a permutation of itself?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

Solution

For every permutation σ\sigma of \{1,2,3,4,5,6\}, Lagrange Interpolation gives a polynomial of degree at most 5 with p(x)=σ(x)p(x)=\sigma(x) for every x=1,2,3,4,5,6x=1,2,3,4,5,6. Additionally, this polynomial is unique: assume that there exist two polynomials p,qp, q of degree \leq 5 such that they map {1,2,3,4,5,6}\{1,2,3,4,5,6\} to the same permutation. Then pqp-q is a nonzero polynomial of degree \leq 5 with 6 distinct roots, a contradiction. Thus an upper bound for the answer is 6!=7206!=720 polynomials. However, not every polynomial obtained by Lagrange interpolation is of degree 5 (for example, p(x)=p(x)= x)x). We can count the number of invalid polynomials using finite differences. A polynomial has degree less than 5 if and only if the sequence of 5th finite differences is 0. The 5th finite difference of p(1),p(2),p(3),p(4),p(5),p(6)p(1), p(2), p(3), p(4), p(5), p(6) is p(1)5p(2)+10p(3)10p(4)+5p(5)p(6)p(1)-5 p(2)+10 p(3)-10 p(4)+5 p(5)-p(6); thus we want to solve p(1)5p(2)+10p(3)10p(4)+5p(5)p(6)=0p(1)-5 p(2)+10 p(3)-10 p(4)+5 p(5)-p(6)=0 with \{p(1), p(2), p(3), p(4), p(5), p(6)\}=\{1,2,3,4,5,6\}. Taking the above equation modulo 5, we get p(1)=p(6)(mod5){p(1),p(6)}={1,6}p(1)=p(6)(\bmod 5) \Rightarrow\{p(1), p(6)\}=\{1,6\}. Note that 15p(2)+10p(3)10p(4)+5p(5)6=01-5 p(2)+10 p(3)-10 p(4)+5 p(5)-6=0 if and only if 65p(5)+10p(4)10p(3)+5p(2)1=06-5 p(5)+10 p(4)-10 p(3)+5 p(2)-1=0, so we may assume that p(1)=1p(1)=1 and double our result later. Then we have \{p(2), p(3), p(4), p(5)\}=\{2,3,4,5\} and p(2)+2p(3)2p(4)+p(5)=1-p(2)+2 p(3)-2 p(4)+p(5)=1. The above equation taken modulo 2 implies that p(2),p(5)p(2), p(5) are of opposite parity, so p(3),p(4)p(3), p(4) are of opposite parity. We do casework on \{p(2), p(5)\}: (a) p(2)=2,p(5)=3;2p(3)2p(4)=0p(2)=2, p(5)=3; 2 p(3)-2 p(4)=0 is a contradiction (b) p(2)=2,p(5)=5;2p(3)2p(4)=2p(3)p(4)=1p(3)=3,p(4)=4p(2)=2, p(5)=5; 2 p(3)-2 p(4)=-2 \Rightarrow p(3)-p(4)=-1 \Rightarrow p(3)=3, p(4)=4 (c) p(2)=3,p(5)=2;2p(3)2p(4)=2p(3)p(4)=1p(3)=4,p(4)=5p(2)=3, p(5)=2; 2 p(3)-2 p(4)=-2 \Rightarrow p(3)-p(4)=-1 \Rightarrow p(3)=4, p(4)=5 (d) p(2)=3,p(5)=4;2p(3)2p(4)=0p(2)=3, p(5)=4; 2 p(3)-2 p(4)=0 is a contradiction (e) p(2)=4,p(5)=3;2p(3)2p(4)=2p(3)p(4)=1p(2)=4, p(5)=3; 2 p(3)-2 p(4)=2 \Rightarrow p(3)-p(4)=1 but \{p(3), p(4)\}=\{2,5\}, contradiction (f) p(2)=4,p(5)=5;2p(3)2p(4)=0p(2)=4, p(5)=5; 2 p(3)-2 p(4)=0 is a contradiction (g) p(2)=5,p(5)=2;2p(3)2p(4)=4p(3)p(4)=2p(2)=5, p(5)=2; 2 p(3)-2 p(4)=4 \Rightarrow p(3)-p(4)=2, contradiction (h) p(2)=5,p(5)=4;2p(3)2p(4)=2p(3)p(4)=1p(3)=3,p(4)=2p(2)=5, p(5)=4; 2 p(3)-2 p(4)=2 \Rightarrow p(3)-p(4)=1 \Rightarrow p(3)=3, p(4)=2. Hence there are a total of 7202(3)=714720-2(3)=714 polynomials.

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