Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/iii/paper-70/2/c/solution

First prove necessity. If polynomials with integer coefficients converge to in the supremum norm, their values at and are convergent sequences of integers. Each such sequence is eventually constant, since a convergent sequence is Cauchy and two distinct integers are at distance at least one. Its limit is an integer. Thus .
For sufficiency we also need uniform convergence of the Bernstein polynomial to . Here is a direct argument. For , write . The binomial distribution has and . For every , uniform continuity of and the Chebyshev inequality give
First make small and then large; the bound is uniform in . Hence .
If the endpoints are integers, part (b) gives . Each coefficient multiplying in is an integer. Expanding by the binomial theorem therefore gives integer coefficients in the ordinary monomial basis. The triangle inequality proves . Thus the integer endpoint condition is necessary and sufficient for integer-coefficient polynomial approximation.

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