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The eigenvalues of a 3×3 matrix are the roots of a cubic polynomial which is the characteristic polynomial of the matrix. The characteristic equation of a third-order constant coefficients or Cauchy–Euler (equidimensional variable coefficients) linear differential equation or difference equation is a cubic equation.
The roots, stationary points, inflection point and concavity of a cubic polynomial x 3 − 6x 2 + 9x − 4 (solid black curve) and its first (dashed red) and second (dotted orange) derivatives. The critical points of a cubic function are its stationary points, that is the points where the slope of the function is zero. [2]
This is illustrated by Wilkinson's polynomial: the roots of this polynomial of degree 20 are the 20 first positive integers; changing the last bit of the 32-bit representation of one of its coefficient (equal to –210) produces a polynomial with only 10 real roots and 10 complex roots with imaginary parts larger than 0.6.
Sometimes the word "order" is used with the meaning of "degree", e.g. a second-order polynomial. However, where the "degree of a polynomial" refers to the largest degree of a non-zero term of the polynomial, more typically "order" refers to the lowest degree of a non-zero term of a power series.
The coefficients of a polynomial and its roots are related by Vieta's formulas. Some polynomials, such as x 2 + 1, do not have any roots among the real numbers. If, however, the set of accepted solutions is expanded to the complex numbers, every non-constant polynomial has at least one root; this is the fundamental theorem of algebra.
In the case that b ≠ 0, there are two distinct roots, but if the polynomial is irreducible, they cannot be expressed in terms of square roots of numbers in the coefficient field. Instead, define the 2-root R(c) of c to be a root of the polynomial x 2 + x + c, an element of the splitting field of that polynomial.
It follows from the present theorem and the fundamental theorem of algebra that if the degree of a real polynomial is odd, it must have at least one real root. [2] This can be proved as follows. Since non-real complex roots come in conjugate pairs, there are an even number of them; But a polynomial of odd degree has an odd number of roots;
Vieta's formulas can equivalently be written as < < < (=) = for k = 1, 2, ..., n (the indices i k are sorted in increasing order to ensure each product of k roots is used exactly once). The left-hand sides of Vieta's formulas are the elementary symmetric polynomials of the roots.