Modular-3 congruence for the conjectural Pascal polynomial factors

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Let P(k)P(k) be the k×kk\times k Pascal matrix, and let ck(t)c_k(t) be the polynomial appearing in the prime-power characteristic-polynomial generalization.

Modular-3 conjecture. For every kk,

ck(t)≡(t+1)3kdet⁡(tI+P(k))(mod3).c_k(t)\equiv (t+1)^{3k}\det(tI+P(k))\pmod 3.

Together with the preceding conjecture, this would give recursive formulas for characteristic polynomials of Pascal matrices modulo 33 and imply that all roots have multiplicative order a power of 22 in the algebraic closure of F3\mathbf{F}_3. The source gives no resolution status.

References

Primary source

Roland Bacher and Robin Chapman, “Symmetric Pascal matrices modulo p”, arXiv:math/0212144 (2003).

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