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Number theory Difficulty 6.9 National olympiad Prove it

Let p p be a prime number and f f an integer polynomial of degree d d such that f(0)=0,f(1)=1 f(0) = 0,f(1) = 1 and f(n) f(n) is congruent to 0 0 or 1 1 modulo p p for every integer n n. Prove that dp1 d\geq p - 1.

Solution

1. Lemma Statement and Proof:
We start with the lemma: If f f is a polynomial with integer coefficients and degf<p1 \deg f < p-1 , then
f(0)+f(1)++f(p1)0(modp). f(0) + f(1) + \cdots + f(p-1) \equiv 0 \pmod{p}.
To prove this lemma, we can reduce it to the case of monomials. Consider a monomial f(x)=xk f(x) = x^k where k<p1 k < p-1 . By Fermat's Little Theorem, we know that for any integer a a ,
apa(modp). a^p \equiv a \pmod{p}.
This implies that for k<p1 k < p-1 ,
i=0p1ik0(modp). \sum_{i=0}^{p-1} i^k \equiv 0 \pmod{p}.
This is because the sum of the k k -th powers of the first p1 p-1 integers modulo p p is zero for k<p1 k < p-1 . Therefore, the lemma holds for any polynomial f f of degree less than p1 p-1 .

2. Application of the Lemma:
Given the polynomial f f with f(0)=0 f(0) = 0 and f(1)=1 f(1) = 1 , and f(n)0 f(n) \equiv 0 or 1(modp) 1 \pmod{p} for every integer n n , we need to show that degfp1 \deg f \geq p-1 .

3. **Summing f(i) f(i) for i=0,1,,p1 i = 0, 1, \ldots, p-1 :**
Since f(i)0 f(i) \equiv 0 or 1(modp) 1 \pmod{p} for i=0,1,,p1 i = 0, 1, \ldots, p-1 , the sum
f(0)+f(1)++f(p1) f(0) + f(1) + \cdots + f(p-1)
is an integer between 0 0 and p1 p-1 .

4. **Contradiction if degf<p1 \deg f < p-1 :**
If degf<p1 \deg f < p-1 , by the lemma, we have
f(0)+f(1)++f(p1)0(modp). f(0) + f(1) + \cdots + f(p-1) \equiv 0 \pmod{p}.
However, since each f(i) f(i) is either 0 0 or 1 1 , the sum f(0)+f(1)++f(p1) f(0) + f(1) + \cdots + f(p-1) is an integer between 0 0 and p1 p-1 . The only way this sum can be congruent to 0(modp) 0 \pmod{p} is if the sum is exactly 0 0 , which is impossible because f(1)=1 f(1) = 1 .

5. Conclusion:
Therefore, the assumption that degf<p1 \deg f < p-1 leads to a contradiction. Hence, we must have
degfp1. \deg f \geq p-1.

\blacksquare

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Source: NuminaMath-1.5, licensed Apache-2.0. Statement and solution reproduced as published; topic and difficulty added by this site.