Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2018 / iii / Paper 103 / 4 / i

We use the abacus divisible-hook correspondence in its multiset form: the hook lengths of $\lambda$ that are divisible by $p$, divided by $p$, form exactly the disjoint union of the multisets of hook lengths of the components of its quotient of a partition for modulus $p$.

Iterating this correspondence gives, for every $r\ge 1$,as multisets. Each Young diagram has one hook for every cell, so the cardinality of the right-hand side is $|T^Q(\lambda {)}_r|$, the sum of the component sizes.

For any positive integer $h$, its P-adic valuation is the number of positive $r$ for which $p^r\mid h$. Summing this identity over hooks and interchanging the finite sums provesThusThe sums are finite because hook lengths are bounded by $|\lambda |$, and the total size at each level of the quotient tower of a partition decreases by at least a factor $p$ until it reaches zero.