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Number theory Difficulty 8.1 Shortlist Prove it Romania

Given an integer k2k \ge 2, determine the largest number of divisors the binomial coefficient (nk)\binom{n}{k} may have in the range nk+1,,nn-k+1, \dots, n, as nn runs through the integers greater than or equal to kk.

Solution

The required maximum is k1k-1 and is achieved, for instance, at n=k!n = k!. To complete the proof, we now show that at least one of the kk numbers 1nj(nk)\frac{1}{n-j}\binom{n}{k}, j=0,1,,k1j = 0, 1, \dots, k-1, is not an integer. To this end, we exhibit a Z\mathbb{Z}-linear combination of these numbers which is not an integer. For instance,
j=0k1(1)kj1(k1j)1nj(nk)=1kj=0k1ijniji=1k \sum_{j=0}^{k-1} (-1)^{k-j-1} \binom{k-1}{j} \cdot \frac{1}{n-j} \binom{n}{k} = \frac{1}{k} \sum_{j=0}^{k-1} \prod_{i \neq j} \frac{n-i}{j-i} = \frac{1}{k}
is not an integer, since k2k \ge 2. The leftmost equality above is easily proved by noticing that the polynomial
j=0k1ijXiji \sum_{j=0}^{k-1} \prod_{i \neq j} \frac{X-i}{j-i}
has degree at most k1k-1, and takes on the value 1 at kk distinct points, namely, 0, 1, ..., k1k-1, so it is identically 1.

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