Conjecture on singularity of the Pell matrix at exceptional primes

From papers

Let p=2n+17p=2n+1\ge7 be an odd prime, so that n=(p1)/2n=(p-1)/2, and let Bp(n1)B_p(n-1) denote the matrix defined in the paper.

Singularity conjecture. The matrix Bp(n1)B_p(n-1) is singular if and only if

p{13,31}.p\in\{13,31\}.

The conjecture is motivated by a computation through 10610^6 and the preceding equivalence between singularity and the congruence Qp2(modp2Z)Q_p\equiv2\pmod{p^2\mathbb{Z}}. The supplied span gives no proof or disproof.

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Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Hai-Liang Wu, Li-Yuan Wang and He-Xia Ni, “The Pell sequence and cyclotomic matrices involving squares over finite fields”, arXiv:2501.01667 (2025).

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