Wednesday, 23 October 2013

number theory - Square does not divide factorial



Find all natural numbers n such that n2 does not divide (n2)!




My thoughts are if by Wilson's theorem (p1)! is not divisible by p and gcd then n = p is done but I am not being able to prove it for composite numbers I. e. n = pqr form.



Any help will be appreciated.


Answer



Answer:
All numbers that are primes, or twice a prime, or among 1, 8, 9.



Proof:
Clearly, n=1 does not work ((n-2)! is not even defined).

If n=8, we check directly that 8^2\nmid 6!.
If n=9, we check directly that 9^2\nmid 7!.



If n=p or n=2p with a prime p, at most one of the factors defining (n-2)! is a multiple of p (and not of p^2), hence n^2\nmid (n-2)!.



If n=2^k with k>3, we see the factors 2^{k-1}, 2^{k-2}, 6, 12 and so n^2\mid (n-2)!.



In all other cases, we can write n=ap with p an odd prime and a\ge3.



If a=3, we can assume p>3 and find the distinct numbers p, 2p, 3, 6 among the factors and thus have n!\mid (n-2)!.




If a\ge 4, the four numbers p, 2p, a, 2a are all n-2. If they are pairwise different, this shows n^2\mid (n-2)!. However it may happen that a=p or a=2p, i.e., n=p^2 or n=2p^2 with p\ge 5. But then we find p, 2p, 3p, 4p among the factors, and so again n^2\mid 4p^4\mid (n-2)!.
\square


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