a) Yes, as long as a and b are allowed to be complex numbers. Consider the simple parabola
y=x2+1with complex roots ±ithis can be written as (x−i)(x+i)=x2+ix−ix+(i)(−i)=x2+1
b) No. Consider a general cubic polynomial
y=ax3+bx2+cx+d
as x→−∞,the x3 term dominates everything and y→−∞as x→+∞, likewise the x3 term dominates and y→+∞somewhere along the way it's got to cross the x axis and at that point y=0 at a real value of x
.