Let be a prime. We arrange the numbers in as a matrix . Next we can select any row or column and add to every number in it, or subtract from every number in it. We call the arrangement [i]good[/i] if we can change every number of the matrix to in a finite number of such moves. How many good arrangements are there?
Solution
Let be a prime. We arrange the numbers in as a matrix . We can select any row or column and add 1 to every number in it, or subtract 1 from every number in it. We call the arrangement "good" if we can change every number of the matrix to 0 in a finite number of such moves. We aim to determine the number of good arrangements.
Assume we start with a good matrix and let and be the numbers of operations ("numbers add one" minus "numbers subtract one") on the -th row and -th column, respectively, to get a zero matrix. Then we should have:
Summing up all these equations, we obtain:
As a result, it implies the sum of numbers that lie on is constant for all .
By comparing these equations, we find that the first row of the matrix is just a translation of the second row, i.e., is constant for . This is true for any two other rows as well.
Thus, the problem boils down to finding and such that:
represents the -th row of matrix for , representing a partition of .
Without loss of generality, we can assume and . We try to prove that either (first column is ) or (first row is ).
If and , then neither the first row nor any other rows contain 2. We have two cases to consider:
1. :
This is straightforward. If , then there is no possible position for 3, so . Continuing in the same way, we find .
2. :
Let be the greatest number such that for all . Then where is ? Yes, and lie below . Playing around with possible positions, we arrive at the matrix:
This matrix implies , which is a contradiction since is prime.
Therefore, in both cases, we can suppose that . This argument works symmetrically for columns as well. Hence, the number of good arrangements is:
The answer is: \boxed{2(p!)^2}.