Let C denote the Fermat curve over Q of prime exponent l. The Jacobian Jac(C) of C splits over Q as the product of Jacobians Jac(C_k), 0< k < l-1, where C_k are curves obtained as quotients of C by certain subgroups of automorphisms of C. It is well known that Jac(C_k) is the power of an absolutely simple abelian variety B_k with complex multiplication. We call degenerate those pairs (l,k) for which B_k has degenerate CM type. For a non-degenerate pair (l,k), we compute the Sato-Tate group of Jac(C_k), prove the generalized Sato-Tate Conjecture for it, and give an explicit method to compute the moments and measures of the involved distributions. Regardless of (l,k) being degenerate or not, we also obtain Frobenius equidistribution results for primes of certain residue degrees in the l-th cyclotomic field. Key to our results is a detailed study of the rank of certain generalized Demjanenko matrices.
Coleman calculated the absolute Frobenius on Fermat curves explicitly. In this paper we show that a kind of $p$-adic continuity implies a large part of his formula. To do this, we study a relation between functional equations of the ($p$-adic) gamma function and monomial relations on ($p$-adic) CM-periods.
This paper presents some refinements of the representation of the Fermat quotient of base 2 as an alternating series which was discovered by Eisenstein in 1850, including some evaluations that are believed to be new.
In this article an upper bound for the first consecutive zeros of the Fermat quotient is given in terms of the zeros of a Mirimanoff polynomial. This bound is obtained by investigating a relation between these polynomials and the factor system of Gauss sums of a certain number field.
We improve an estimate of A.Granville (1987) on the number of vanishing Fermat quotients $q_p(\ell)$ modulo a prime $p$ when $\ell$ runs through primes $\ell \le N$. We use this bound to obtain an unconditional improvement of the conditional (under the Generalised Riemann Hypothesis) estimate of Y. Ihara (2006) on a certain sum, related to vanishing Fermat quotients. In turn this sum appears in the study of the index of certain subfields of of cyclotomic fields $\Q(\exp(2 πi/p^2))$.
This paper explores some previously-unrecognized consequences of Lerch's 1905 formula for the Fermat quotient, with special attention to the sums which he introduced in this context. A generalization of his result is proved, and a new proof given of a sharpened result by Skula (2008). We also sharpen the criteria given by Emma Lehmer in 1938 for a Wieferich prime to be simultaneously a Mirimanoff prime.
We show that for any $\varepsilon > 0$ and a sufficiently large cube-free $q$, any reduced residue class modulo $q$ can be represented as a product of $14$ integers from the interval $[1, q^{1/4e^{1/2} + \varepsilon}]$. The length of the interval is at the lower limit of what is possible before the Burgess bound on the smallest quadratic nonresidue is improved. We also consider several variations of this result and give applications to Fermat quotients.
For a prime $p$ and an integer $u$ with $\gcd(u,p)=1$, we define Fermat quotients by the conditions $$ q_p(u) \equiv \frac{u^{p-1} -1}{p} \pmod p, \qquad 0 \le q_p(u) \le p-1. $$ D. R. Heath-Brown has given a bound of exponential sums with $N$ consecutive Fermat quotients that is nontrivial for $N\ge p^{1/2+ε}$ for any fixed $ε>0$. We use a recent idea of M. Z. Garaev together with a form of the large sieve inequality due to S. Baier and L. Zhao, to show that on average over $p$ one can obtain a nontrivial estimate for much shorter sums starting with $N\ge p^ε$. We also obtain lower bounds on …
For a fixed integer a>1, we suggest that the probability of nullity of the p-Fermat quotient q(p,a) is much lower than 1/p for any arbitrary large prime number p. For this we use various heuristics, justified by means of numerical computations and analytical results, which may imply the finiteness of the q(p,a) equal to 0 and the existence of integers a such that q(p,a) is different from 0 for all p. However no proofs are obtained concerning these heuristics.
We obtain some theoretic and experimental results concerning various properties (the number of fixed points, image distribution, cycle lengths) of the dynamical system naturally associated with Fermat quotients acting on the set $\{0, ..., p-1\}$. We also consider pseudorandom properties of Fermat quotients such as joint distribution and linear complexity.
We describe the trace representations of two families of binary sequences derived from Fermat quotients modulo an odd prime $p$ (one is the binary threshold sequences, the other is the Legendre-Fermat quotient sequences) via determining the defining pairs of all binary characteristic sequences of cosets, which coincide with the sets of pre-images modulo $p^2$ of each fixed value of Fermat quotients. From the defining pairs, we can obtain an earlier result of linear complexity for the binary threshold sequences and a new result of linear complexity for the Legendre-Fermat quotient sequences und…
We obtain the trace map image of the values of certain harmonic volumes for some quotients of Fermat curves. This provides the algorithm that the algebraic cycles called by the k-th Ceresa cycles are not algebraically equivalent to zero in the Jacobian varieties.
Given an odd prime p, we prove a congruence on the p-residue of the Fermat quotient q_p(a) in base a with 0<a<p, which arises from a generalization of the Voronoi congruences and from some other congruences on sums and weighted sums of divided Bernoulli numbers. As an application in the base 2 case, we retrieve a congruence for the first generalized harmonic number of order (p-1)/2, a generalization originally due to Z-H. Sun of a classical congruence known since long for the harmonic number of order (p-1)/2 as a special case of the Lerch formula. We find a sharpening of the Voronoi congruence…
We classify all geometric torsion points on the Fermat quotients $y^n = x^d + 1$ where $n, d \ge 2$ are coprime. In addition, we classify all geometric torsion points on the generic superelliptic curve $y^n = (x - a_1) \cdots (x - a_d)$, extending a result of Poonen and Stoll, who considered the hyperelliptic $n = 2$ case.
We give two new examples of non-hyperelliptic curves whose Ceresa cycles have torsion images in the intermediate Jacobian. For one of them, the central value of the $L$-function of the relevant motive is non-vanishing and the Ceresa cycle is torsion in the Griffiths group, consistent with the conjectures of Beilinson and Bloch. We speculate on a possible explanation for the existence of these torsion Ceresa classes, based on some computations with cyclic Fermat quotients.
We generalize the congruences of Friedmann-Tamarkine (1909), Lehmer (1938), Ernvall-Metsankyla (1991) on the sums of powers of integers weighted by powers of the Fermat quotients to the next Fermat quotient power, namely to the third power of the Fermat quotient. Using this result and the Gessel identity (2005) combined with our past work (2001), we are able to relate residues of some truncated convolutions of Bernoulli numbers with some Ernvall-Metsankyla residues to some full convolutions of the same kind. We also establish some congruences concerning other related weighed sums of powers of …
Given a prime $\ell\geq 3$ and a positive integer $k \le \ell-2$, one can define a matrix $D_{k,\ell}$, the so-called Demjanenko matrix, whose rank is equal to the dimension of the Hodge group of the Jacobian ${\mathrm Jac}({\mathcal C}_{k,\ell})$ of a certain quotient of the Fermat curve of exponent $\ell$. For a fixed $\ell$, the existence of $k$ for which $D_{k,\ell}$ is singular (equivalently, for which the rank of the Hodge group of ${\mathrm Jac}({\mathcal C}_{k,\ell})$ is not maximal) has been extensively studied in the literature. We provide an asymptotic formula for the number of such…
Information about the absolute Galois group $G_K$ of a number field $K$ is encoded in how it acts on the étale fundamental group $π$ of a curve $X$ defined over $K$. In the case that $K=\mathbb{Q}(ζ_n)$ is the cyclotomic field and $X$ is the Fermat curve of degree $n \geq 3$, Anderson determined the action of $G_K$ on the étale homology with coefficients in $\mathbb{Z}/n \mathbb{Z}$.The étale homology is the first quotient in the lower central series of the étale fundamental group.In this paper, we determine the structure of the graded Lie algebra for $π$. As a consequence, this determines the…
The Fermat quotient $q_p(a):=(a^{p-1}-1)/p$, for prime $p\nmid a$, and the Wilson quotient $w_p:=((p-1)!+1)/p$ are integers. If $p\mid w_p,$ then $p$ is a Wilson prime. For odd $p,$ Lerch proved that $(\sum_{a=1}^{p-1} q_p(a) - w_p)/p$ is also an integer; we call it the Lerch quotient $\ell_p.$ If $p\mid\ell_p$ we say $p$ is a Lerch prime. A simple Bernoulli-number test for Lerch primes is proven. There are four Lerch primes 3, 103, 839, 2237 up to $3\times10^6$; we relate them to the known Wilson primes 5, 13, 563. Generalizations are suggested. Next, if $p$ is a non-Wilson prime, then $q_p(w…
Carmichael quotients for an integer $m\ge 2$ are introduced analogous to Fermat quotients, by using Carmichael function $λ(m)$. Various properties of these new quotients are investigated, such as basic arithmetic properties, sequences derived from Carmichael quotients, Carmichael-Wieferich numbers, and so on. Finally, we link Carmichael quotients to perfect nonlinear functions.
We give q-analogues of the following congruences by Z.-W. Sun: \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{D_k}{k} \equiv -\frac{2^{p-1}-1}{p} \pmod p,\\ \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{H_k}{k 2^k}\equiv 0 \pmod{p},\quad p\geqslant 5, where p is a prime, D_n=\sum_{k=0}^{n}{n+k\choose 2k}{2k\choose k} are the Delannoy numbers, and H_n=\sum_{k=1}^n\frac{1}{k} are the harmonic numbers. We also prove that, for any positive integer m and prime p>m+1, \sum_{1\leqslant k_1\leqslant \cdots \leqslant k_m\leqslant p-1}\frac{1}{k_1\cdots k_m 2^{k_m}} \equiv\frac{1}{2}\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{(-1)^{k-1}}{k^m} \pmod p, which is a multiple g…
We extend the results of the first author on nontrivial elements in the Shafarevich-Tate group of the jacobian of a quotient of a Fermat curve of prime degree, and use the methods of the second author to derive a result bounding the quadratic points on the Fermat curve of degree 19.
Fermat-Euler quotients arose from the study of the first case of Fermat's Last Theorem, and have numerous applications in number theory. Recently they were studied from the cryptographic aspects by constructing many pseudorandom binary sequences, whose linear complexities and trace representations were calculated. In this work, we further study their correlation measures by using the approach based on Dirichlet characters, Ramanujan sums and Gauss sums. Our results show that the $4$-order correlation measures of these sequences are very large. Therefore they may not be suggested for cryptograp…
Let $p>3$ be a prime, and let $q_p(2)=(2^{p-1}-1)/p$ be the Fermat quotient of $p$ to base 2. Recently, Z. H. Sun proved that \sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{1}{k\cdot 2^k}\equiv q_p(2)-\frac{p}{2}q_p(2)^2 \pmod{p^2} which is a generalization of a congruence due to W. Kohnen. In this note we give an elementary proof of the above congruence which is based on several combinatorial identities and congruences involving the Fermat quotient $q_p(2)$, harmonic or alternating harmonic sums.
The Frobenius symbol was first introduced in 1900 by Frobenius as a way to encode an integer partition. In 1941, motivated by the modular representation theory of the symmetric group, Nakayama introduced the idea of a p-core partition, for p prime, using hook removals. In the following decade, Robinson, Littlewood, Staal and Farahat codified the $p$-quotient of such a partition, using variations of the star diagram. Since the 1970s, the convention has been to build up the theory of both core and quotients with the abacus construction, first introduced by G. James. In this paper we return to th…
Let $p$ be a prime number and let $k$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p$. A $BT_1$ group scheme over $k$ is a finite commutative group scheme which arises as the kernel of $p$ on a $p$-divisible (Barsotti--Tate) group. We compare three classifications of $BT_1$ group schemes, due in large part to Kraft, Ekedahl, and Oort, and defined using words, canonical filtrations, and permutations. Using this comparison, we determine the Ekedahl--Oort types of Fermat quotient curves and we compute four invariants of the $p$-torsion group schemes of these curves.
Given two numerical semigroups $S$ and $T$ and a positive integer $d$, $S$ is said to be one over $d$ of $T$ if $S=\{s \in \mathbb{N} \ | \ ds \in T \}$ and in this case $T$ is called a $d$-fold of $S$. We prove that the minimal genus of the $d$-folds of $S$ is $g + \lceil \frac{(d-1)f}{2} \rceil$, where $g$ and $f$ denote the genus and the Frobenius number of $S$. The case $d=2$ is a problem proposed by Robles-Pérez, Rosales, and Vasco. Furthermore, we find the minimal genus of the symmetric doubles of $S$ and study the particular case when $S$ is almost symmetric. Finally, we study the Frobe…
In \cite{mccarthy2}, McCarthy defined a function $_{n}G_{n}[\cdots]$ using Teichmüller character of finite fields and quotients of $p$-adic gamma function, and expressed the trace of Frobenius of elliptic curves in terms of special values of $_{2}G_{2}[\cdots]$. We establish two different expressions for the traces of Frobenius of elliptic curves in terms of the function $_{2}G_{2}[\cdots]$. As a result, we obtain two relations between special values of the function $_{2}G_{2}[\cdots]$ with different parameters.
We define a function in terms of quotients of the $p$-adic gamma function which generalizes earlier work of the author on extending hypergeometric functions over finite fields to the $p$-adic setting. We prove, for primes $p > 3$, that the trace of Frobenius of any elliptic curve over $\mathbb{F}_p$, whose $j$-invariant does not equal 0 or 1728, is just a special value of this function. This generalizes results of Fuselier and Lennon which evaluate the trace of Frobenius in terms of hypergeometric functions over $\mathbb{F}_p$ when $p \equiv 1 \pmod {12}$.
We show that the mod p Galois representations attached to a Q-curve E of degree d over an imaginary quadratic number field K are surjective for all p larger than some constant M_{K,d}, if E has potentially multiplicative reduction at any prime not dividing 6. The proof uses Mazur's formal immersion method, a result of Darmon and Merel on non-split modular curves, and an analytic argument showing that Jacobians of certain twisted modular curves admit quotients with Mordell-Weil rank 0. In combination with a previous theorem of the author and Skinner on modularity of Q-curves, the surjectivity r…
We show that torsion points of certain orders are not on a theta divisor in the Jacobian variety of a hyperelliptic curve given by the equation $y^2=x^{2g+1}+x$ with $g \geq 2$. The proof employs a method of Anderson who proved an analogous result for a cyclic quotient of a Fermat curve of prime degree.
The topic of this paper concerns a certain relation between the jacobians of various quotients of the modular curve $X(p)$, which relates the jacobian of the quotient of $X(p)$ by the normaliser of a non-split Cartan subgroup of $GL_2(F_p)$ to the jacobians of more standard modular curves. In this paper, we confirm a conjecture of Merel found in a paper of Darmon-Merel, "Winding quotients and some variants of Fermat's Last Theorem", Crelle, v. 490, p. 81-100, 1997, which describes this relation in terms of explicit correspondences. The method used is to reduce the conjecture to showing a certa…
For any polynomial $p\left(x\right)$ over $\mathbb{F}_{l}$ we determine the asymptotic density of hyperelliptic curves over $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ of genus $g$ for which $p\left(x\right)$ divides the characteristic polynomial of Frobenius acting on the $l$-torsion of the Jacobian, and give an explicit formula for this density. We prove this result as a consequence of more general density theorems for quotients of Tate modules of such curves, viewed as modules over the Frobenius. The proof involves the study of measures on $R$-modules over arbitrary rings $R$ which are finite $\mathbb{Z}_{l}$-algebra…
Let $p\ge 5$ be a prime, and let $q_p(2):=(2^{p-1}-1)/p$ be the Fermat quotient of $p$ to base 2. The following curious congruence was conjectured by L. Skula and proved by A. Granville $$ q_p(2)^2\equiv -\sum_{k=1}^{p-1}\frac{2^k}{k^2}\pmod{p}. $$ In this note we establish the above congruence by entirely elementary number theory arguments.
We estimate exponential sums with the Fermat-like quotients $$ f_g(n) = \frac{g^{n-1} - 1}{n} \mand h_g(n)=\frac{g^{n-1}-1}{P(n)}, $$ where $g$ and $n$ are positive integers, $n$ is composite, and P(n) is the largest prime factor of $n$. Clearly, both $f_g(n)$ and $h_g(n)$ are integers if $n$ is a Fermat pseudoprime to base $g$, and if $n$ is a Carmichael number this is true for all $g$ coprime to $n$. Nevertheless, our bounds imply that the fractional parts $\{f_g(n)\}$ and $\{h_g(n)\}$ are uniformly distributed, on average over $g$ for $f_g(n)$, and individually for $h_g(n)$. We also obtain …
We show that, modulo some odd prime p, the powers of two weighted sum of the first p-2 divided Bernoulli numbers equals the Agoh-Giuga quotient plus twice the number of permutations on p-2 letters with an even number of ascents and distinct from the identity. We provide a combinatorial characterization of Wieferich primes, as well as of primes p for which p^2 divides the Fermat quotient q_p(2).
We revisit old conjectures of Fermat and Euler regarding representation of integers by binary quadratic form x^2+5y^2. Making use of Ramanujan's_1ψ_1 summation formula we establish a new Lambert series identity for \sum_{n,m=-\infty}^{\infty} q^{n^2+5m^2}. Conjectures of Fermat and Euler are shown to follow easily from this new formula. But we don't stop there. Employing various formulas found in Ramanujan's notebooks and using a bit of ingenuity we obtaina collection of new Lambert series for certain infinite products associated with quadratic forms such as x^2+6y^2, 2x^2+3y^2, x^2+15y^2, 3x^…
Anderson introduced a $p$-adic version of soliton theory. He then applied it to the Jacobian variety of a cyclic quotient of a Fermat curve and showed that torsion points of certain prime order lay outside of the theta divisor. In this paper, we evolve his theory further. As an application, we get a stronger result on the intersection of the theta divisor and torsion points on the Jacobian variety for more general curves. New examples are discussed as well. A key new ingredient is a map connecting the $p$-adic loop group and the formal group.
