11/25/2015

PolynomialRootsfromWolframMathWorld

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THINGSTOTRY:
rootsof11x^9+4x^4+2x1

PolynomialRoots

Wallis'sconstant
AngerJ

HistoryandTerminology
NumberTheory
ProbabilityandStatistics

Arootofapolynomial
isanumber suchthat
.Thefundamentaltheoremofalgebrastatesthata
polynomial
ofdegree has roots,someofwhichmaybedegenerate.Forexample,therootsofthe
polynomial

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(1)

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EdPeggJr

ComplexRootsofa
PolynomialandIts
Derivative

Anypolynomialcanbenumericallyfactored,althoughdifferentalgorithmshavedifferentstrengthsandweaknesses.
TherootsofapolynomialequationmaybefoundexactlyintheWolframLanguageusingRoots[lhs==rhs,var],or
numericallyusingNRoots[lhs==rhs,var].Ingeneral,agivenrootofapolynomial
is
representedasRoot[#^n+a[n1]#^(n1)+...+a[0]&,k],where
,2,..., isanindexidentifyingtheparticularroot
andthepurefunctionpolynomialisirreducible.NotethatintheWolframLanguage,theorderingofrootsisdifferent
ineachofthecommandsRoots,NRoots,andTable[Root[p,k], k,n ].

MichaelSchreiber

CubicEquation
EricW.Weisstein

IntheWolframLanguage,algebraicexpressionsinvolvingRootobjectscanbecombinedintoanewRootobject
usingthecommandRootReduce.

RootPlotofa
PolynomialClass
EdPeggJr

Inthiswork,the throotofapolynomial
intheorderingoftheWolframLanguage'sRootobjectisdenoted
,where isadummyvariable.Inthisordering,realrootscomebeforecomplexonesandcomplexconjugate
pairsofrootsareadjacent.Forexample,

WolframWebResources

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13,577entries
Lastupdated:FriNov202015

Created,developed,and
nurturedbyEricWeisstein
atWolframResearch

PolynomialRoots

are ,1,and2.Findingrootsofapolynomialisthereforeequivalenttopolynomialfactorizationintofactorsof
degree1.

(3)
and
(4)
(5)
(6)
Lettherootsofthepolynomial
(7)
bedenoted , ,..., .ThenVieta'sformulasgive
(8)

(9)

(10)

Thesecanbederivedbywriting
(11)
expanding,andthencomparingthecoefficientswith().
Givenan thdegreepolynomial
matrix

,therootscanbefoundbyfindingtheeigenvalues ofthe

(12)

andtaking
roots.

.Thismethodcanbecomputationallyexpensive,butisfairlyrobustatfindingcloseandmultiple

Ifthecoefficientsofthepolynomial
(13)
arespecifiedtobeintegers,thenrationalrootsmusthaveanumeratorwhichisafactorof andadenominator
whichisafactorof (witheithersignpossible).Thisisknownasthepolynomialremaindertheorem.
Iftherearenonegativerootsofapolynomial(ascanbedeterminedbyDescartes'signrule),thenthegreatestlower
boundis0.Otherwise,writeoutthecoefficients,let
,andcomputethenextline.Now,ifanycoefficientsare0,
setthemtominusthesignofthenexthighercoefficient,startingwiththesecondhighestordercoefficient.Ifallthe
signsalternate, isthegreatestlowerbound.Ifnot,thensubtract1from ,andcomputeanotherline.Forexample,

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PolynomialRoots.html

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11/25/2015

PolynomialRootsfromWolframMathWorld
considerthepolynomial
(14)
Performingtheabovealgorithmthengives
0

2 2

2 0

2
sothegreatestlowerboundis

35

Iftherearenopositiverootsofapolynomial(ascanbedeterminedbyDescartes'signrule),theleastupperboundis
0.Otherwise,writeoutthecoefficientsofthepolynomials,includingzerosasnecessary.Let
.Ontheline
below,writethehighestordercoefficient.Startingwiththesecondhighestcoefficient,add timesthenumberjust
writtentotheoriginalsecondcoefficient,andwriteitbelowthesecondcoefficient.Continuethroughorderzero.Ifall
thecoefficientsarenonnegative,theleastupperboundis .Ifnot,addoneto andrepeattheprocessagain.For
example,takethepolynomial
(15)
Performingtheabovealgorithmgives
0 2

1 2

2 2

3 2

25

68

sotheleastupperboundis3.

Plottingtherootsinthecomplexplaneofallpolynomialsuptosomedegreewithintegercoefficientslessthansome
cutoffintegerinabsolutevalueshowsthebeautifulstructureillustratedabove(Trott2004,p.23).

Anevenmorestunningfigureisobtainedbyplottingallrootsofallpolynomialswithcoefficients
(BorweinandJrgenson2001Pickover2002Baileyetal.2007,p.18).

uptodegree

SEEALSO:

AlgebraicEquation,AlgebraicNumber,Bairstow'sMethod,BerlekampZassenhausAlgorithm,ConjugateElements,
Descartes'SignRule,Gauss'sRootTheorem,Graeffe'sMethod,IrreduciblePolynomial,JenkinsTraubMethod,
Jensen'sTheorem,Laguerre'sMethod,LehmerSchurMethod,Lucas'sRootTheorem,Maehly'sProcedure,Muller's
Method,PolynomialDiscriminant,PolynomialFactorization,Resultant,Root,Vieta'sformulas
RELATEDWOLFRAMSITES:

http://functions.wolfram.com/ElementaryFunctions/Root/
REFERENCES:
Bailey,D.H.Borwein,J.M.Calkin,N.J.Girgensohn,R.Luke,D.R.andMoll,V.H.ExperimentalMathematicsinAction.
Wellesley,MA:AKPeters,2007.
BharuchaReid,A.T.andSambandham,M.RandomPolynomials.NewYork:AcademicPress,1986.
Borwein,P.andJrgenson,L."VisibleStructuresinNumberTheory."Amer.Math.Monthly108,897911,2001.
Borwein,P.ComputationalExcursionsinAnalysisandNumberTheory.NewYork:SpringerVerlag,2002.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PolynomialRoots.html

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PolynomialRootsfromWolframMathWorld
Odlyzko,A.M.andPoonen,B."ZerosofPolynomialswith

Coefficients."L'EnseignementMath.39,317348,1993.

Pan,V.Y."SolvingaPolynomialEquation:SomeHistoryandRecentProgress."SIAMRev.39,187220,1997.
Pickover,C.A.TheMathematicsofOz:MentalGymnasticsfromBeyondtheEdge.NewYork:CambridgeUniversityPress,
pp.286287,2002.
Trott,M.TheMathematicaGuideBookforProgramming.NewYork:SpringerVerlag,2004.
http://www.mathematicaguidebooks.org/.

ReferencedonWolfram|Alpha:PolynomialRoots
CITETHISAS:
Weisstein,EricW."PolynomialRoots."FromMathWorldAWolframWebResource.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/PolynomialRoots.html

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