How do I prove Wilson's Theorem $$\large{(p-1)! \equiv -1 \pmod p}$$ using Euler's theorem $$ \large{a^{\varphi(n)} \equiv 1 \pmod n }$$ where $ \large{\varphi(n)} $ denotes Euler's Totient function?
Thanks in advance for any replies.
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$\textbf{Hint}:\space \space \space \space \phi(p) = p-1$ because there are $p-1$ numbers that are relatively prime to any prime number $p$ – alkabary May 20 '15 at 05:42
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I edited the question because I am sure you meant $\pmod{p}$ in the statement of the theorem – marwalix May 20 '15 at 05:52
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2As an aside, I wrote a blog post on Wilson's Theorem for the MSE Community blog. – davidlowryduda May 20 '15 at 05:53
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@alkabary I figured that out but not sure how to use it to prove the theorem. Can you give another hint? – pseudogeek May 20 '15 at 16:37
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We sketch a proof of an interesting result that does the job, though admittedly it is overkill. However, it is close in spirit to the first published proof of Wilson's Theorem.
Let $p$ be prime. Let $P(x)$ be the polynomial $x^{p-1}-1$ and let $Q(x)=(x-1)(x-2)\cdots (x-(p-1))$.
By Fermat's theorem, we have $P(a)\equiv 0\pmod{p}$ for every $a$ from $1$ to $p-1$. And it is obvious that $Q(a)\equiv 0\pmod{p}$ for every such $a$. Let $D(x)=P(x)-Q(x)$. Then $D(a)\equiv 0\pmod{p}$ for all $a$ such that $1\le a\le p-1$.
But $D(x)$ has degree $\lt p-1$, and has at least $p-1$ zeros modulo $p$. It follows by a theorem due to Lagrange that all the coefficients of $D(x)$ are congruent to $0$ modulo $p$. In particular, the constant terms of $P(x)$ and $Q(x)$ are congruent modulo $p$. This is Wilson's Theorem.
André Nicolas
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