Lifting the Exponent Lemma (LTE) 18

p. Then, the binomial formula yields,

 
p p−2 2k
a p − b p = pk+1 b p−1 c + b p c + · · · + pkp c p
2
p

p−2 2k
Since p > 2, the numbers 2 b p c, · · · , pkp c p have p-adic valuation greater than k + 1, whence

v p (a p − b p ) = v p (pk+1 b p−1 c) = 1 + k = 1 + v p (a − b)

as desired.

However there we present an interesting form of this theorem

Corollary 1.2.2 — Let p be an odd prime and let a, b be integers not divisible by p such that p | a + b.
Then for all odd positive integers n, we have

v p (an + bn ) = v p (n) + v p (a + b)

Now we have seen the case when p is an odd prime, but what about the case when p = 2? This case is
the most interesting, and surprisingly there is a theorem for that as well.

Theorem 1.2.3 — Let x and y be odd positive integers and let n be an even positive integer, then
 2
x − y2

n n
v2 (x − y ) = v2 + v2 (n)
2

Proof. Write n = 2k a for some integer k ≥ 1 and some odd positive integer a. Then, we have
 k−1 k−1

xn − yn = (xa − ya )(xa + ya )(x2a + y2a ) · · · x2 a + y2 a

and since for any c, d ∈ Z, we have c2 + d 2 ≡ 2 (mod 4), the previous relation yields

v2 (xn − yn ) = v2 x2a − y2a + k − 1

x2a −y2a
Finally since a, x, y are odd, it is easy to observe that x2 −y2
= x2(a−1) + · · · + x2(a−1) which is clearly
odd, and this completes the proof.

Now that we are clear with the theory part, let us move on to tackle some concrete and challenging
problems.