Generalization of Rational Root Theorem [closed] Can the rational root theorem in univariate var

Dillan Gibbs

Dillan Gibbs

Answered question

2022-02-14

Generalization of Rational Root Theorem [closed]
Can the rational root theorem in univariate variable polynomial equations be extended to more than one variable? For instance could we apply it to
f(x,y)=1+x+xy2y2+4x2
to find all possible rational roots? I am sure the obvious answer is no but is there any hint on how to find all possible rational roots say of this example?

Answer & Explanation

Jack Hobbs

Jack Hobbs

Beginner2022-02-15Added 14 answers

As said in the comments: the answer is NO in general.
For your particular case, you can do the following thing.
We have
f(x,y)=2(yx4)2+x22+4x2+x+1
=2(yx4)2+92x2+x+1
=2(yx4)2+92(x+19)2+1718.
Soving f(x,y)=0 where x,yQ is the same as solving 2u2+92v2=1718, setting u=yx4 and V=x+19 (it is easy to derive x,y from u, v. This is equivalent to
36u2+81v2=17, that is (3u9v)(3u+9v)=17, which is easy to solve. For tQ×, this is equivalent to solve 3u9v=t,3u+9v=17t. You then get u,v as a rational fraction of t, then you get x,y.
[The idea is that you have an affine conic, so you can reduce it to a "diagonal form", and then reduce to the easier case to a rational conic ax2+by2=c. This situation is well understood from quadratic form specialist, and you have systematic methods to solve this even if it can be a bit tricky. Here we are in a particularly nice situation.]
Dzikowiec5wa

Dzikowiec5wa

Beginner2022-02-16Added 13 answers

Commenters have pointed to examples of why this won’t generalize. I’ll give a more theoretical reason.
The trick of the rational root theorem is that it takes a polynomial of one variable and converts it to a homogenous polynomial of two variables, and then deduce things about the integer solutions of homogenous polynomial.
For example, rational roots of 2x2+5x+3=0 correspond to integer solutions to 2x2+5xy+3y2=0, with gcd(x,y)=1.From there, we see y must be a factor of 2x2. But the GCD condition means y must divide 2. Similarly, x must divide 3.
With multiple variables we can still homogenize. We get, in your equation:
z2+xz+(xy2y2+4x2)=0
But we can only restrict to integers with gcd(x,y,z)=1, not pairwise relatively '. For example, if in the original equation, the roots are (x,y)=(12,13), the roots in the homogenous polynomial would be (x,y,z)=(3,2,6).
And, in any event, we don’t know a factor of
xz+(xy2x2+4y2), so we don’t have a factor of z2. Indeed, gcd(x,xy2y2+4x2)=gcd(x,2y2), which are relatively ' if gcd(x,2y)=1.
So, the heart of it is that homogenous integer polynomials of two variables, x,y, have one term of the form axn and all other terms are divisible by y. There is no other common divisor for the other terms with more than one variable.
But even if there is a common divisor, say:
3z2+2zy+xy=0.
you do get y3z2, but you don’t know all the solutions can reduce to an example with gcd(y,z)=1. So you can’t deduce y3.
One final note is that homogeneous polynomials of more than 2 variables need not even have “lead coefficients.” For example:
x12x2+x22x3+x32x1
has no terms of the form axi3.
We can get similar examples with two variables, but they factor:
xy2+yx2=xy(y+x).

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