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Algebra Difficulty 7.8 National olympiad, round 2 Find the answer

Let n n be a positive integer. Given an integer coefficient polynomial f(x) f(x), define its *signature modulo n n* to be the (ordered) sequence f(1),,f(n) f(1), \ldots , f(n) modulo n n. Of the nn n^n such n n-term sequences of integers modulo n n, how many are the signature of some polynomial f(x) f(x) if
a) n n is a positive integer not divisible by the square of a prime.
b) n n is a positive integer not divisible by the cube of a prime.

A number or a short expression. Spacing and $ signs are ignored.

Solution

Let n n be a positive integer. Given an integer coefficient polynomial f(x) f(x) , define its signature modulo n n to be the (ordered) sequence f(1),,f(n) f(1), \ldots, f(n) modulo n n . Of the nn n^n such n n -term sequences of integers modulo n n , we need to determine how many are the signature of some polynomial f(x) f(x) under the following conditions:

a) n n is a positive integer not divisible by the square of a prime.

b) n n is a positive integer not divisible by the cube of a prime.

### Solution:
Part (a):

Let n=p1p2pk n = p_1 p_2 \cdots p_k , where pi p_i are distinct primes. We need to find the number of signatures modulo n n .

Lemma 1: There is a polynomial for all signatures modulo p p for any prime p p . Thus, there are pp p^p possible signatures modulo p p .

Lemma 2: If we have a polynomial f(x) f(x) modulo m m and a polynomial g(x) g(x) modulo n n , where m m and n n are coprime, then we can find an h(x) h(x) modulo mn mn such that h(x)f(x)(modm) h(x) \equiv f(x) \pmod{m} and h(x)g(x)(modn) h(x) \equiv g(x) \pmod{n} .

Using Lemma 2 repeatedly, we can combine the signatures modulo each pi p_i to get a signature modulo n n . Therefore, the number of signatures modulo n n is:
i=1kpipi. \prod_{i=1}^k p_i^{p_i}.

Part (b):

Let n=p1p2pkq12q22ql2 n = p_1 p_2 \cdots p_k q_1^2 q_2^2 \cdots q_l^2 , where pi p_i are distinct primes and qi q_i are distinct primes not divisible by the cube of a prime.

Lemma 6: For any sequence of p p numbers, a0,a1,,ap1 a_0, a_1, \cdots, a_{p-1} , we can find a polynomial f(x) f(x) that has its signature starting with a0,a1,,ap1(modp2) a_0, a_1, \cdots, a_{p-1} \pmod{p^2} . There are p3p p^{3p} signatures modulo p2 p^2 .

Using similar reasoning as in part (a), the number of signatures modulo n n is:
i=1kpipij=1lqj3qj. \prod_{i=1}^k p_i^{p_i} \prod_{j=1}^l q_j^{3q_j}.

The answer is:
i=1kpipi for part (a) \boxed{\prod_{i=1}^k p_i^{p_i} \text{ for part (a)}}
i=1kpipij=1lqj3qj for part (b) \boxed{\prod_{i=1}^k p_i^{p_i} \prod_{j=1}^l q_j^{3q_j} \text{ for part (b)}}

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