A condition for the existence of zero coefficients in the powers of the determinant polynomial

Abstract

We discuss the existence of zero coefficients in the powers of the determinant polynomial of order $n$. D. G. Glynn proved that the coefficients of the $m$th power of the determinant polynomial are all nonzero, if $m = p-1$ with a prime $p$. We show that the converse also holds, if $n \geq 3$. The proof is quite elementary.