Generalizations of Arnold’s version of Euler’s theorem for matrices

Abstract.

A recent result, conjectured by Arnold and proved by Zarelua, states that for a prime number p, a positive integer k, and a square matrix A with integral entries one has ${\textrm tr}(A^{p^k}) \equiv {\textrm tr}(A^{p^{k-1}}) ({\textrm mod}{p^k})$. We give a short proof of a more general result, which states that if the characteristic polynomials of two integral matrices A,  B are congruent modulo p ^k then the characteristic polynomials of A ^p and B ^p are congruent modulo p ^k+1, and then we show that Arnold’s conjecture follows from it easily. Using this result, we prove the following generalization of Euler’s theorem for any 2 × 2 integral matrix A: the characteristic polynomials of A ^Φ(n) and A ^Φ(n)-ϕ(n) are congruent modulo n. Here ϕ is the Euler function, $\prod_{i=1}^{l} p_i^{\alpha_i}$ is a prime factorization of n and $\Phi(n)=(\phi(n)+\prod_{i=1}^{l} p_i^{\alpha_i-1}(p_i+1))/2$.