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jmc

algebra senior

Problem

There are nonzero integers , , , and such that the complex number is a zero of the polynomial . For each possible combination of and , let be the sum of the zeros of . Find the sum of the 's for all possible combinations of and .
Solution
Since the coefficients of are real, if is a zero, then so is . To avoid counting pairs of roots twice, we stipulate that .

Letting denote the third root, we note that by Vieta's formulas, so , which is an integer. By Vieta again, so must be a positive divisor of . Testing cases, we find that the possible values for are , , , , , , , and .

Now, given and , we determine . By Vieta's again, Over all possible pairs , the terms all cancel with each other. Looking at the list of possible pairs , we get that the sum of all the 's is
Final answer
80