Is it possible? 2

Algebra Level 3

There exist polynomial P ( x ) P(x) with integer coefficient such that P ( n ) = n + 1 P(n)=n+1 for n = 1 , 2 , . . . , 2017 n=1,2,...,2017 and P ( 2018 ) = 1 P(2018)=1 .

Is this true?

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1 solution

Sándor Daróczi
Jul 7, 2017

Lemma: If P ( x ) P(x) is a polynomial with integer coefficients, then x y P ( x ) P ( y ) x-y | P(x)-P(y) for every x x , y y integer.

Proof: Letting P ( x ) = i = 0 n a i x i P(x) = \displaystyle \sum_{i=0}^n a_ix^i with a i a_i being an integer for every i i we obtain

P ( x ) P ( y ) = i = 0 n a i x i i = 0 n a i y i = i = 0 n a i ( x i y i ) P(x)-P(y) = \displaystyle \sum_{i=0}^n a_ix^i - \displaystyle \sum_{i=0}^n a_iy^i = \displaystyle \sum_{i=0}^n a_i(x^i-y^i)

Clearly x y x i y i x-y | x^i-y^i for i 0 i \geq 0 (since x i y i = ( x y ) ( x i 1 + x i 2 y + . . . + x y i 2 + y i 1 ) x^i-y^i = (x-y)(x^{i-1}+x^{i-2}y+...+xy^{i-2}+y^{i-1}) for i > 0 i>0 and x i y i = 1 1 = 0 x^i-y^i = 1-1 = 0 for i = 0 i=0 ), which means that

x y i = 0 n a i ( x i y i ) = P ( x ) P ( y ) x-y | \displaystyle \sum_{i=0}^n a_i(x^i-y^i) = P(x)-P(y) .

Applying the lemma for the polynomial described in the problem with x = 2018 x=2018 and y = 2015 y=2015 we would have

3 = x y P ( x ) P ( y ) = 1 2016 = 2015 3 = x-y | P(x)-P(y) = 1-2016 = -2015

but 3 ( 2015 ) 3 \nmid (-2015) so there does not exist such a polynomial.

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