A friend asked me this question:
If $p$ is a prime, prove that $(p - 1)! + 1$ is a power of $p$ if and only if $p = 2, 3$ or $5$.
Clearly one direction is obvious, namely that $p=2,3,5$ implies $(p - 1)! + 1$ is a power of $p$.
The other direction is not clear to me. Since by Wilson's theorem $p$ divides $(p - 1)! + 1$ so we need to show that if there are no other prime factors then $p=2,3,5$. Can someone give me a hint for establishing this?
Thanks
$\endgroup$2 Answers
$\begingroup$Let $p^k - 1 = (p-1)!$. Cancel the factor of $(p-1)$, we get $$p^{k-1} + \cdots + 1 = (p-2)!$$ Now consider mod $p-1$ to get information about $k$. When can the equality ever hold?
$\endgroup$ 2 $\begingroup$Not sure if only one hint would help, you could try using more hints as needed. First, the statement holds for all natural numbers $n \notin \{2, 3, 5\} $, not just for primes. One way to proceed is to show that for $n > 5$:
1) $n$ cannot be even if it satisfies the equation
2) for $n$ odd, $(n-1)^2 \space | \space (n-1)!$
3) from (2) above and the given equation, show $(n-1) \space | \space k$ which implies $n-1 \le k$
4) show that $\forall n > 2, (n-1)! < n^{n-1} - 1$
Hope that helps!
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