Problem

Source: Romanian National Olympiad 2019 - Grade 11 - Problem 4

Tags: prime numbers, group theory, linear algebra, matrix, permutations



Let $p$ be a prime number. For any $\sigma \in S_p$ (the permutation group of $\{1,2,...,p \}),$ define the matrix $A_{\sigma}=(a_{ij}) \in \mathcal{M}_p(\mathbb{Z})$ as $a_{ij} = \sigma^{i-1}(j),$ where $\sigma^0$ is the identity permutation and $\sigma^k = \underbrace{\sigma \circ \sigma \circ ... \circ \sigma}_k.$ Prove that $D = \{ |\det A_{\sigma}| : \sigma \in S_p \}$ has at most $1+ (p-2)!$ elements.