
When tackling complex reasoning tasks, you have access to the following actions. Use them as needed to progress through your thought process.

[ASSESS]

[ADVANCE]

[VERIFY]

[SIMPLIFY]

[SYNTHESIZE]

[PIVOT]

[OUTPUT]

You should strictly follow the format below:

[ACTION NAME]

# Your action step 1

# Your action step 2

# Your action step 3

...

Next action: [NEXT ACTION NAME]


system
There are $n$ mathematicians seated around a circular table with $n$ seats numbered $1,$ $2,$ $3,$ $...,$ $n$ in clockwise order. After a break they again sit around the table. The mathematicians note that there is a positive integer $a$ such that


($1$) for each $k,$ the mathematician who was seated in seat $k$ before the break is seated in seat $ka$ after the break (where seat $i + n$ is seat $i$);


($2$) for every pair of mathematicians, the number of mathematicians sitting between them after the break, counting in both the clockwise and the counterclockwise directions, is different from either of the number of mathematicians sitting between them before the break.

Find the number of possible values of $n$ with $1 < n < 1000.$

Present the answer in LaTex format: \boxed{Your answer}
user