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Algebra Difficulty 6.9 National Olympiad Prove it Singapore

Let pp be a prime number. Determine the largest possible nn such that the following holds. It is possible to fill an n×nn \times n table with integers aika_{ik} in the ii-th row and kk-th column, for 1i,kn1 \le i, k \le n, such that for any quadruple i,j,k,li, j, k, l with 1i<jn1 \le i < j \le n and 1k<ln1 \le k < l \le n, the number aikajlailajka_{ik}a_{jl} - a_{il}a_{jk} is not divisible by pp.

Solution

The answer is n=p+1n = p + 1. We first show that np+1n \le p + 1. Since we are interested only in divisibility by pp, we assume that 0aikp10 \le a_{ik} \le p - 1. Note that each row and each column can have at most one zero. Also notice that we can scale each row or column by scalar not divisible by pp without affecting the given property of the table. Consider the first row, which must have at least n1n-1 non-zero values, say in the first n1n-1 columns. By scaling those columns by an appropriate scalar, we may assume that the first n1n-1 values in the first row are all 1's. Now in the second row, the first n1n-1 values must be distinct, hence n1pn-1 \le p, as desired.

We now construct for n=p+1n = p + 1. Take the following grid. For 2i,kp+12 \le i, k \le p + 1,
a11=0, a1k=1, ai1=1, aik=ki. a_{11} = 0,\ a_{1k} = 1,\ a_{i1} = 1,\ a_{ik} = k - i.
For a valid quadruple i,j,k,li, j, k, l as described in the problem, it is simple to check it works when i=1i = 1 or k=1k = 1. When i2i \ge 2 and k2k \ge 2, the number aikajlailajka_{ik}a_{jl} - a_{il}a_{jk} turns out to be (ij)(kl)0(modp)(i-j)(k-l) \ne 0 \pmod{p}.

(011111101234140123134012123401112340) \begin{pmatrix} 0 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 \\ 1 & 4 & 0 & 1 & 2 & 3 \\ 1 & 3 & 4 & 0 & 1 & 2 \\ 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 0 \end{pmatrix}

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