An observation on generating functions with an application to a sum of secant powers (Q656026)

Let \(P \in \mathbb{Z}[x]\) and \(Q(x)=q (x-\alpha_1) \dots (x-\alpha_n) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]\) be two relatively prime polynomials such that \(P(x)/Q(x)=\sum_{k=0}^{\infty} a_k x^k\) with \(a_k \in \mathbb{Z}\). The author proves that then each \(\alpha_j^{-1}\), \(j=1,\dots,n\), is an algebraic integer. As an application it is shown that if \(n>1\) is an odd integer such that for every positive integer \(m\) the sum \[ \sum_{k=1}^{(n-1)/2} \frac{1}{\big(\cos(k \pi/(k+1))\big)^{2m}} \] is an integer then \(n+1\) must be a power of \(2\). In fact, this is a solution to Problem 11213(b) of the \textit{American Mathematical Monthly} (2006).