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Vancouver
03-03-2010, 12:07 AM
Let n and k be relatively prime positive integers. Let f(X) and g(X) be polynomials with integers coefficients such that
f(X)g(X) = X^n - 1.
Prove that
f(X^k) / f(X)
is a polynomial with integer coefficients.

Example:
n=6 and k=5
f(X) = X^2 - X + 1
g(X) = X^4 + X^3 - X - 1
We now have
f(X)g(X) = X^6 - 1
and you can verify that f(X^5)/f(X) has integer coefficients.

Vancouver
03-03-2010, 10:10 PM
I was being a bit facetious. The claim follows easily enough from a theorem in advanced algebra (the theorem that all cyclotomic polynomials are irreducible), but an independent proof of this claim would imply the other theorem, and that would be nice because the only known proofs of the latter are a little bit unnaturally long and contrived.

pilobolus
03-05-2010, 07:48 PM
I'd love to help, but I am a Bush League academic...