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Let $f$ be a degree $n$ univariate polynomial in $Z[x]$, defined as $f = \sum\limits_{i=0}^{i=n} f_i x^i$. Let $g = f^2 = f \cdot f = \sum\limits_{k=0}^{i=2n} g_k x^k$ be the square of $f$. I am trying to find an expression for the coefficients $g_k$. So far, I have the standard expression: $g_k = \sum\limits_{i+j=k,0 \le i,j \le n} f_i f_j.$ But while playing with polynomials in Maple, I noticed that there is (seemingly) more structure in the coefficients. Is there a nicer formula for raising a polynomial to arbitrary powers? (and more specifically to power 2?)

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    @Arturo, ah, yes. That's true.2011-02-18

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I've written this for the more general case of the p'th power of a powerseries $ f(x)=1+ax+bx^2+... $ You can just set all non-wanted coefficients to zero. Here is a screenshot: p'th power of a power series The numerical coefficients at some term $ a^{e_1}*b^{e_2}*c^{e_3} $depends on the occurences of the exponents and the number of factors (multinomials)

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At least you can do it faster, using discrete Fourier transform.

Let $a$ be a vector with $2n$ elements whose first $n$ elements are the coefficients of the polynomial $f$, the rest zero. Let $c$ be the vector with the coefficients for $g$. Then $c$ is the cyclic convolution of $a$ with itself:

$c = a * a$

But convolution turns to multiplication under the Fourier transform $\mathcal F$:

$\mathcal F (c) = \mathcal F(a) \mathcal F(a)$

using the inverse Fourier transform you get:

$c = \mathcal F^{-1} \left( \mathcal F(a) \mathcal F(a) \right)$

This can of course be generalized to arbitrary powers and polynomials which are not equal.

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    See http://everything2.com/title/Multiplication+using+the+Fast+Fourier+Transform. Time complexity is $O(n\log n)$.2011-02-18