Tuesday 21 April 2015

absolute value - Complex number with z to the power of 4



I have to find all $z\in C$ for which BOTH of the following is true:



1) $|z|=1$



2) $|z^4+1| = 1$



I understand that the 1) is a unit circle, but I can't find out what would be the 2).

Calculating the power of $(x+yi)$ seems wrong because I get a function with square root of polynomial of the 8th degree.



I've even tried to equate the two, since their modulo is the same, like this:



$|z|= |z^4+1|$



and then separating two possibilities in which the equation holds, but I get only



$z^4\pm z+1=0$




which I don't know how to calculate.



I guess there is an elegant solution which I am unable to see...



Any help?


Answer



It seems helpful to square both sides. From the second equation, you get $$1 = (z^4 + 1)(\overline{z}^4 + 1) = (z \overline{z})^4 + z^4 + \overline{z}^4 + 1 = z^4 + \overline{z}^4 + 2.$$ That is, $z^4 + \overline{z^4} = -1.$



The first equation lets you write $z = e^{i \theta}$, so you have $$-1 = e^{4i\theta} + e^{-4i \theta} = 2\cos(4\theta);$$ in other words, $\cos(4\theta) = \frac{-1}{2}.$ The solutions of this are well-known.


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