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Czech-Slovak-Polish Match

Number theory Difficulty 5.2 AIME, harder Prove it Czech-Polish-Slovak Mathematical Match

Determine all prime numbers pp, such that the number
(p1)2+(p2)2+⋯+(pp−1)2 \binom{p}{1}^2 + \binom{p}{2}^2 + \dots + \binom{p}{p-1}^2
is divisible by p3p^3.

Solution

We start from the observation that for k=1,2,…,pk = 1, 2, \dots, p we have
(p−1k−1)≡±1(modp).(1) \binom{p-1}{k-1} \equiv \pm 1 \pmod{p}. \qquad (1)
To see this, note that
p−1≡−1(modp), p-1 \equiv -1 \pmod{p},
p−2≡−2(modp), p-2 \equiv -2 \pmod{p},
⋮⋮ \vdots \qquad \vdots
k≡−(p−k)(modp), k \equiv -(p-k) \pmod{p},
hence, multiplying,
(p−1)!(k−1)!≡±(p−k)!(modp) \frac{(p-1)!}{(k-1)!} \equiv \pm(p-k)! \pmod{p}
and (1) follows. This can be written in an equivalent form
kp(pk)≡±1(modp), \frac{k}{p} \binom{p}{k} \equiv \pm 1 \pmod{p},
which implies that
(pk)=p⋅akp±1k, \binom{p}{k} = p \cdot \frac{a_k p \pm 1}{k},
for some integer aka_k. Therefore, if pp satisfies the given conditions, we have
p∣∑k=1p−1(akp±1)2k2, p \mid \sum_{k=1}^{p-1} \frac{(a_k p \pm 1)^2}{k^2},
or p∣∑k=1p−11/k2p \mid \sum_{k=1}^{p-1} 1/k^2, where by 1/m1/m we understand the unique integer 1≤l≤p−11 \le l \le p-1 satisfying ml≡1(modp)ml \equiv 1 \pmod{p}. Now observe that 1/k2≡(1/k)2(modp)1/k^2 \equiv (1/k)^2 \pmod{p} and
∑k=1p−11k2≡∑k=1p−1k2=p(p−1)(2p−1)6(modp), \sum_{k=1}^{p-1} \frac{1}{k^2} \equiv \sum_{k=1}^{p-1} k^2 = \frac{p(p-1)(2p-1)}{6} \pmod{p},
which is divisible by pp if and only if p≥5p \ge 5.

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