Let be prime numbers and be an integer such that and but . Prove that
Solutions — 3
Solution 1
As while , the case is impossible. Thus, the desired equation is equivalent to
Removing parentheses in the l.h.s. of (13) gives all monomials of the form where . As , the sums in the exponents can be replaced with their remainders modulo . We claim that each possible remainder is produced the same number of times provided that we leave out the empty set and the whole set . Indeed, for each tuple where , we can find such that and form a new tuple for which . Clearly different tuples lead to different new tuples. Thus, for any remainder , there are at least as many tuples with sum congruent to as tuples with sum congruent to . Doing this times, we get back to the beginning and hence there are equal number of tuples giving each remainder.
Let this constant number of tuples be . Then (13) is equivalent to
As , we have . Moreover, as while , we also have . Consequently, (13) is equivalent to which holds trivially.
Solution 2
Like in Solution 1, prove that is odd. By assumptions, the order of modulo divides and does not equal 1. Hence the order of modulo must be . Thus are pairwise incongruent modulo . This implies that the residue classes of are all distinct roots of the polynomial in . Thus in we have . After substituting and dividing all factors in the r.h.s. except the first one by , we obtain an equivalent congruence . As , division by is possible and gives the desired congruence.
Solution 3
Rewrite each factor in the form . Since is even and , we obtain
As , the least exponent for which must divide ; as , the least exponent must equal . Therefore none of the factors is divisible by . This means that the congruence above can be reduced by these factors, i.e.,
This proves the claim.