Gotta' give credit to Geno for his solution here :
https://web2.0calc.com/questions/answer-was-not-clearly-stated-last-time
His answer is all that we can infer because the numerical value of a depends upon the numerical value of b
For instance....pick a value for b, say ,1
Then a = 1^2 + 1 = 2
Then we have that
x^2 + 2(1)x + (2 - 1) = 0
x^2 + 2x + 1 = 0
(x + 1)^2 = 0
Verify for yourself that x = -1 will be the only solution....
Also note that, in general, we have
x^2 + 2bx + (b^2 + b - b) = 0
x^2 + 2bx + b^2 = 0 which can be factored as
(x + b)^2 = 0
So....we will always have just one solution, namely......x = -b