Roots with product equal to 1

Algebra Level 4

How many pairs of integers ( a , b ) (a,b) exist such that the equation x 2020 = a x + b \large{x^{2020}=ax+b} has among its solutions two distinct real numbers whose product is 1.

2020 Infinitely many 2019 0

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1 solution

Patrick Corn
Apr 29, 2019

Let n 2 n \ge 2 be a positive integer. Then let y n = n + n 2 1 . y_n = n + \sqrt{n^2-1}. There are integers a n , c n a_n,c_n such that y n 2020 = c n + a n n 2 1 . y_n^{2020} = c_n + a_n\sqrt{n^2-1}. Then if b n = c n n a n , b_n = c_n-na_n, it is easy to check that y n 2020 = a n y n + b n . y_n^{2020} = a_ny_n + b_n. Now notice that 1 / y n = n n 2 1 , 1/y_n = n-\sqrt{n^2-1}, the ( Galois ) conjugate of y n , y_n, and conjugating both sides immediately shows that ( 1 / y n ) 2020 = a n ( 1 / y n ) + b n . (1/y_n)^{2020} = a_n(1/y_n) + b_n. (This can be checked directly as well, without any field theory.)

Since there are infinitely many y n , y_n, there are infinitely many equations of the form x 2020 = a n x + b n x^{2020} = a_n x + b_n which have two distinct real roots whose product is 1. It's possible that some of these equations are the same (i.e. a m = a n , b m = b n a_m = a_n, b_m=b_n for some m , n m,n ), but any particular equation of this type has finitely many roots, hence finitely many y n y_n as roots, so there must be infinitely many distinct equations of this type as well.

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