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Consider the polynomial ring $R=\mathbb C[x,y]$.

Consider the matrix $A=\begin{pmatrix} x^5+y^5&5x^5&10x^5&10x^5&5x^5\\5y^5&x^5+y^5 &5x^5&10x^5&10x^5 \\10y^5&5y^5&x^5+y^5&5x^5&10x^5\\10y^5&10y^5&5y^5&x^5+y^5&5x^5\\5y^5&10y^5&10y^5&5y^5&x^5+y^5 \end{pmatrix} \in M_5(R)$.

Also consider the polynomial $p(x,y)=\det (A-I)\in R=\mathbb C[x,y]$.

How to show that $p(x,y) $ can be factored into $5^2=25$ linear polynomials in $x$ and $y$ (over $\mathbb C$) ?

If $x+y=1$, then it can be shown that $1$ is an an eigenvalue of $A$, so the image of $p(x,y)$ in $\mathbb C[x,y]/(x+y-1)$ is $0$; thus $x+y-1$ is a factor of $p(x,y)$; but other than that, I'm unable to say anything else.

I feel I some how have to apply Hilbert Nullstellensatz, but I don't know how.

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Define the $\, n\times n\,$ matrix $\, A = \{a_{i, j}\}_{i, j=1}^n \,$ where $\, a_{i, j} = \binom{n}{j-i}x^n + \binom{n}{i-j}y^n. \,$ The matrix $A$ is a special Toeplitz matrix. Let $\, p(x, y) := \det(A-I).\,$ Since $\, x + y - 1 \,$ is a factor, then also $\, z x + w y - 1 \,$ is a factor where $\, z, w \,$ are any pair of $\,n$th roots of unity and there are $\,n^2\,$ pairs.

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  • $\begingroup$ Right. The matrix stays the same when $x,y$ are replaced by $zx,wy$. $\endgroup$ Sep 24, 2018 at 6:15
  • $\begingroup$ Took a few tries, I did $n=3$ by combining into real products, once I fixed some errors it was nice , had pari check the product against the determinant // f3 = x^3 + y^3 + 3 * x * y - 1 // f5 = x^2 + 2 * x * y + y^2 + x + y + 1 // f7 = x^2 - x * y + y^2 + x - 2 * y + 1 // f9 = x^2 - x * y + y^2 -2 * x + y + 1 // p = x^9 + (3*y^3 - 3)*x^6 + (3*y^6 + 21*y^3 + 3)*x^3 + (y^9 - 3*y^6 + 3*y^3 - 1) // $\endgroup$
    – Will Jagy
    Sep 24, 2018 at 18:15
  • $\begingroup$ Using $1 + w + w^2 = 0,$ the term I called f3 is $$ (x+y-1)(xw+yw^2-1)(x w^2 + y w - 1) $$ the other terms f5,f7,f9 are products of pairs of complex conjugate terms (assuming x,y real for cosmetic purposes) $\endgroup$
    – Will Jagy
    Sep 24, 2018 at 18:22

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