The number of roots of a lacunary bivariate polynomial on a line

We prove that a polynomial f∈R[x,y]$f\in \mathbb{R}[x,y]$ with t$t$ non-zero terms, restricted to a real line y=ax+b$y=ax+b$, either has at most 6t−4$6t-4$ zeros or vanishes over the whole line. As a consequence, we derive an alternative algorithm for deciding whether a linear polynomial y−ax−b∈K[x,y]$y-ax-b\in K[x,y]$ divides a lacunary polynomial f∈K[x,y]$f\in K[x,y]$, where K$K$ is a real number field. The number of bit operations performed by the algorithm is polynomial in the number of non-zero terms of f$f$, in the logarithm of the degree of f$f$, in the degree of the extension K/Q$K/\mathbb{Q}$ and in the logarithmic height of a$a$, b$b$ and f$f$.