Abstract

We will prove that we can specialize the indeterminate α in a linear differential α-resolvent of a univariate polynomial over a differential field of characteristic zero to an integer q to obtain a q-resolvent. We use this idea to obtain a formula, known as the powersum formula, for the terms of the α-resolvent. Finally, we use the powersum formula to rediscover Cockle's differential resolvent of a cubic trinomial.