RATIONAL POLYNOMIALS WITH PRIME CONSTANTS

O. KRANTZ

1 Consider the polynomial of degree n represented by (1.1) f (x) = xn + q1 xn1 + q2 xn2 + + qn1 x2 + qn x + p p prime. Supposing x Z, i.e. f is solveable over Z and given that p P, the only proper divisors of p is 1, p. As such, f must be expressible as (1.2) f (x) = (x + 1)n1 (x + p)
n1

Consider now the binomial expansion of (x + 1)n1 (1.3) (x + 1)n1 =

k=0

n1 k x k

Combined with the linear factor (x + p), f is expressible as

n1

(1.4)

f (x) = p[
k=0

n1 k x ] + x[ k
n1 k

n1

k=0

n1 k x ] k

The general binomial coecient (1.5)

is given by = n! k !(n k 1)!

n1 k

We now focus on adding the binomial coecients of eq (1.4). Given that the second term is amended by x, the coecient of any x in the rst term must be associated with the binomial coecient one term below in the second term, such that; (1.6) p n1 n1 + k k1 = p(n 1)! (n 1)! + k !(n k 1)! (k 1)!(n k )!

Which can be rearranged into a more pleasing form (1.7) p(n 1)!(n k ) + k (n 1)! (n 1)!(p(n k ) + k ) = k !(n k )! k !(n k )! (n 1)![p(n k ) + k ] k !(n k )!

So suppose some qn is represented by (1.8) qn =

The question now is whether qn is prime or composite. Consider, as an example the polynomial (1.9)
Date : 2014.
1

f (x) = x5 + q1 x4 + q2 x3 + q3 x2 + q4 x + p

O. KRANTZ

Assuming f is solveable over Z, f (x) = (x +1)4 (x + p), which when expanded yields (1.10) f (x) = x5 + (p + 4)x4 + (4p + 6)x3 + (6p + 4)x2 + (4p + 1)x + p

Thus q1 = (p + 4), q2 = (4p + 6), q3 = (6p + 4), q4 = (4p + 1). q1 and q4 can be both prime and composite for certain values, however we note that for q2,3 (1.11) q2 = (4p + 6) = 2(2p + 3), q3 = (6p + 4) = 2(3p + 2) Which are obviously composite for any value of p > 2. Thus q1 and q4 are the only potentially prime coecients. This curious pattern repeats over polynomials of any degree n, with the rst and last coecient (seemingly) being the only potentially prime coecients. Again, recalling that any coecient qn is given by (n 1)![p(n k ) + k ] (1.12) qn = k !(n k )! Since qn can be rewritten as a product, it generally cannot be prime, however there are two exceptions when the fraction can be reduced into a sum. When qn = p(n k ) + k it is potentially prime, two cases of this is when k = 1 and k = n 1. When k = 1, qn takes the form (n 1)![p(n 1) + k ] (1.13) qn = = p(n 1) + k 1!(n 1)! And when k = n 1 (n 1)![p(1) + (n 1)] (1.14) qn = = p + (n 1) (n 1)!1! For any other value of k , qn can be rewritten in the form p(n k ) + k (1.15) (n 1)![ ] k !(n k )! So clearly qn /P k = (n 1), 1

Thus for any polynomial solveable over Z (1.16) f (x) = xn + q1 xn1 + + qn1 x2 + qn x + p where p is a prime > 2, all coecients are necessarily composite except q1 , qn which are potentially prime.