Elementary symmetric polynomial
ID: elementary-symmetric-polynomial
The th elementary symmetric polynomial adds every product obtained by choosing distinct positions from :The conventions are and for . The positions must be distinct, but their values may coincide. Each permutation of the variables merely rearranges the summands, so this is a symmetric polynomial.
For , , , we obtain , , and . Expanding the product givesIn general, . Thus the coefficients of a monic polynomial collect elementary symmetric polynomials of its roots of a polynomial, with alternating signs. These are the Vieta formulas.[ref]
Elementary symmetric polynomials are a fundamental class of symmetric polynomials in algebra. Given a set of \( n \) variables, \( x_1, x_2, ..., x_n \), the elementary symmetric polynomials are defined as follows: 1. The first elementary symmetric polynomial \( e_1(x_1, x_2, ...
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