Let be a prime number and an integer polynomial of degree such that and is congruent to or modulo for every integer . Prove that .
Solution
1. Lemma Statement and Proof:
We start with the lemma: If is a polynomial with integer coefficients and , then
To prove this lemma, we can reduce it to the case of monomials. Consider a monomial where . By Fermat's Little Theorem, we know that for any integer ,
This implies that for ,
This is because the sum of the -th powers of the first integers modulo is zero for . Therefore, the lemma holds for any polynomial of degree less than .
2. Application of the Lemma:
Given the polynomial with and , and or for every integer , we need to show that .
3. **Summing for :**
Since or for , the sum
is an integer between and .
4. **Contradiction if :**
If , by the lemma, we have
However, since each is either or , the sum is an integer between and . The only way this sum can be congruent to is if the sum is exactly , which is impossible because .
5. Conclusion:
Therefore, the assumption that leads to a contradiction. Hence, we must have