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Number theory Difficulty 5.6 AIME, harder Prove it Belarus

Let p5p \ge 5 be a prime number. Prove that for each divisor d>2d > 2 of p1p-1 it's possible to partition all integers between 11 and p1p-1 into the sets with dd numbers in each in such a way that the sum of squares of all numbers of each set is divisible by pp.

(Mikhail Karpuk)

Solution

Denote the set of all residues modulo pp by Fp\mathbb{F}_p. Fermat's little theorem implies that the roots of the polynomial xp11x^{p-1} - 1 are all nonzero elements of Fp\mathbb{F}_p. Since xp11=(xd1)(xd(m1)+xd(m2)++xd+1)x^{p-1} - 1 = (x^d - 1)(x^{d(m-1)} + x^{d(m-2)} + \dots + x^d + 1) where p1=mdp-1 = md, the polynomial xd1x^d - 1 divides xp11x^{p-1} - 1. In this equality the sum of the degrees of the factors equals the number of roots, hence xd1x^d - 1 has dd roots. Denote these roots a1,a2,,ada_1, a_2, \dots, a_d.

Consider all polynomials of the form xdCx^d - C. If such polynomial has a root bb then it has dd roots a1b,a2b,,adba_1b, a_2b, \dots, a_db and cannot have more roots than its degree, so it has exactly dd roots. On the other hand, each bFp{0}b \in \mathbb{F}_p \setminus \{0\} is a root of such polynomial, namely xdbdx^d - b^d. Therefore Fp{0}\mathbb{F}_p \setminus \{0\} is the disjoint union of mm sets, consisting of dd roots of some polynomial xdCx^d - C. Such partition satisfies the problem condition since by Vieta's theorem the sum of the roots and the sum of the pairwise products of the roots of xdCx^d - C are congruent to zero modulo pp, whence the sum of their squares is likewise congruent to zero.

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