Permutations that destroy arithmetic progressions in elementary \(p\)-groups (Q510332)

Summary: Given an abelian group \(G\), it is natural to ask whether there exists a permutation \(\pi\) of \(G\) that ``destroys'' all nontrivial 3-term arithmetic progressions (APs), in the sense that \(\pi(b) - \pi(a) \neq \pi(c) - \pi(b)\) for every ordered triple \((a,b,c) \in G^3\) satisfying \(b-a = c-b \neq 0\). This question was resolved for infinite groups \(G\) by \textit{P. Hegarty} [Electron. J. Comb. 11, No. 1, Research paper R39, 21 p. (2004; Zbl 1128.11007)], who showed that there exists an AP-destroying permutation of \(G\) if and only if \(G/\Omega_2(G)\) has the same cardinality as \(G\), where \(\Omega_2(G)\) denotes the subgroup of all elements in \(G\) whose order divides 2. In the case when \(G\) is finite, however, only partial results have been obtained thus far. \textit{P. Hegarty} [Electron. J. Comb. 11, No. 1, Research paper R39, 21 p. (2004; Zbl 1128.11007)] has conjectured that an AP-destroying permutation of \(G\) exists if \(G = \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}\) for all \(n \neq 2,3,5,7\), and together with \textit{A. Martinsson} [Electron. J. Comb. 22, No. 4, Research Paper P4.39, 14 p. (2015; Zbl 1329.05008)], he has proven the conjecture for all \(n > 1.4 \times 10^{14}\). In this paper, we show that if \(p\) is a prime and \(k\) is a positive integer, then there is an AP-destroying permutation of the elementary \(p\)-group \((\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z})^k\) if and only if \(p\) is odd and \((p,k) \not\in \{(3,1),(5,1), (7,1)\}\).