Elementary symmetric polynomial

ID: elementary-symmetric-polynomial

Elementary symmetric polynomial by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
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 gives
In 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]
Figure 1.
Choosing one, two, or three root positions gives the coefficients of a cubic
. For the stipulated roots , node values add to , edge products add to , and the product of all three positions is . These elementary symmetric polynomials enter the monic polynomial with alternating signs. The graph is an original illustration of the exact finite calculation. Details.

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