is a monic quadratic polynomial such that and share at least one common root.
What is ?
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Let f ( x ) = x 2 + a x + b and let the common root be r . So f ( r ) = 0 and f ( f ( f ( r ) ) ) = 0 . This implies f ( f ( 0 ) ) = 0 . But f ( 0 ) = b so f ( b ) = 0 . So b is the other root. Since the product of the two roots is b , we have r b = b which implies b = 0 or r = 1 . These respectively implies f ( 0 ) = 0 or f ( 1 ) = 0 . Both leads to the whole product to be 0 .