TSTST 2023 Problem 9

Let $p$ be a fixed prime and let $a \geq 2$ and $e \geq 1$ be fixed integers. Given a function $f: \mathbb{Z} / a \mathbb{Z} \rightarrow \mathbb{Z} / p^{e} \mathbb{Z}$ and an integer $k \geq 0$, the $k$ th finite difference, denoted $\Delta^{k} f$, is the function from $\mathbb{Z} / a \mathbb{Z}$ to $\mathbb{Z} / p^{e} \mathbb{Z}$ defined recursively by $$\begin{aligned} & \Delta^{0} f(n)=f(n) \\ & \Delta^{k} f(n)=\Delta^{k-1} f(n+1)-\Delta^{k-1} f(n) \text { for } k=1,2, \ldots \end{aligned}$$ Determine the number of functions $f$ such that there exists some $k \geq 1$ for which $\Delta^{k} f=f$ 。