Vanishing sums of powers modulo n - MathOverflow most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net2013-05-25T11:36:02Zhttp://mathoverflow.net/feeds/question/107895http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdfhttp://mathoverflow.net/questions/107895/vanishing-sums-of-powers-modulo-nVanishing sums of powers modulo nAnton Klyachko2012-09-23T10:12:52Z2012-09-23T10:18:40Z
<p>Is it possible to describe all positive integer sequences ${x_i}$ such that
$$
\sum_i x_i=n
\quad
\hbox{and}
\quad
\sum_i x_i^k\equiv 0\pmod n
\quad
\hbox{for all $k$ (and a given $n$)?}
$$</p>
<h2>Background</h2>
<p>We say that two elements of a group belong to the same <em>tribe</em> if their squares are equal.
Then </p>
<p><i> the sum of $k$</i>th <i>powers of tribe sizes is divisible by the order of the group for any positive integer $k$</i> [<a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2824" rel="nofollow">http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.2824</a>, Example 1].</p>
<p>This remains true if we replace squares (in the definition of tribes) with cubes or any other powers.</p>