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Here is a small cute lemma, that I have encountered while solving a problem. Hope you will enjoy it.

Let $p$ be an odd prime. Define $S_k$ via $$ S_k \triangleq \sum_{i=1}^{p-1}i^k. $$ Show that $p \mid S_k$ for all $1 \leq k < p-1$.

TBTD
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1 Answers1

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Here is a different proof from the links shown. Hope this is correct.

If $k$ is odd, then $i^k + (p-i)^k = 0 \mod p$

Consider $k$ even:

$1^k, 2^k, ..., (p-1)^k$ are all quadratic residues$\mod p$ with the values being equal WLOG to $1, g, g^2, ..., g^{(p-3)/2}$ and whose sum is $g^{(p-1)/2} - 1$ which is $0 \mod p$ per Fermat and where $g$ is a quadratic residue.

sku
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