Symmetric polynomials

Symmetric polynomials arise naturally in the study of the relation between the roots of a polynomial in one variable and its coefficients, since the coefficients can be given by polynomial expressions in the roots, and all roots play a similar role in this setting. From this point of view the elementary symmetric polynomials are the most fundamental symmetric polynomials. Indeed, a theorem called the fundamental theorem of symmetric polynomials states that any symmetric polynomial can be expressed in terms of elementary symmetric polynomials. This implies that every symmetricpolynomial expression in the roots of a monic polynomial can alternatively be given as a polynomial expression in the coefficients of the polynomial.