Famous Theorems of Mathematics/π is transcendental/Fundamental theorem of symmetric polynomials


Let be a field, and let be a symmetric polynomial.
Then can be expressed uniquely as a polynomial , such that:

  • 's degree does not exceed 's degree.
  • If has integer coefficients, then so does .

Proof

edit

First, we shall descibe an algorithm for finding the desired polynomial .

Let us define initial conditions and .

  1. Find such that .
  2. Define .
  3. Write .
  4. If , return to step 1 and began the process over with the index .
    If , move on to step 5.
  5. Write .


In order to prove the algorithm we need two lemmas.

Lemma 1: The leading monomial in satisfies .

Proof: Let us assume there exists an index such that . Then there exists a permutation such that

But the polynomial contains the monomial , which is of higher order than . A contradiction.

Lemma 2: The leading monomial in the expansion of is .

Proof: We have

The last equality holds if and only if

We shall now prove the theorem:

1. Let be a symmetric polynomial in variables .
The proof is by strong induction on (see definition).

If then is a constant polynomial, and it is easy to show the algorithm holds.

Let us assume the algorithm holds for all symmetric polynomials with , for some .
We will show that the algorithm holds also for a symmetric polynomial with , such that .

By lemma 2, we get:

The function is a polynomial, since .
In addition, by the properties of symmetric polynomials is a symmetric polynomial in variables , therefore so is .
The polynomials both contain , hence it is cancelled in their subtraction.

If then .
If then , meaning .
Thus, the inductive assumption holds for , and therefore the algorithm yields a polynomial such that

2. The properties of the theorem hold:

  • By definition, the degree of is and the degree of is at least .
  • If has integer coefficients then is an integer. Therefore too has integer coefficients.

Important results

edit

Theorem. Let   be a field, and let   be a polynomial of degree   with roots  .
Let   be a symmetric polynomial. Then  .

Proof. By Vieta's formulae, we get

 

By the fundamental theorm above,   can be expressed as a polynomial

 

 

Theorem. Let   be a field, and let   be a polynomial of degree   with roots  .
Let  , and let   be the sums of every   of the roots   (namely  ).
Then there exists a monic polynomial   of degree   with roots  .

Proof. We will show that

 

By Vieta's formulae, its coefficients are all symmetric polynomials in  .

Let   be a symmetric polynomial, and let   be the sums of every   of the variables  .
Then   can be expressed as a polynomial

 

It is easy to see that by applying a permutation on  , we also apply a permutation on  .
Hence   is a symmetric polynomial, and by the previous theorem we get

 

 


Fundamental theorem of symmetric polynomials