SE-SKOLORNAS 1996 Problem 3

For every positive integer $n$ , we define the function $p_n$ for $x\ge 1$ by $$p_n(x) = \frac12 \left(\left(x+\sqrt{x^2-1}\right)^n+\left(x-\sqrt{x^2-1}\right)^n\right).$$ Prove that $p_n(x) \ge 1$ and that $p_{mn}(x) = p_m(p_n(x))$ .