Let $q$ be a prime. We classify the odd primes $p\neq q$ such that the equation $x^2\equiv q\pmod{p}$ has a solution, concretely, we find a subgroup $\mathbb{L}_{4q}$ of the multiplicative group $\mathbb{U}_{4q}$ of integers relatively prime with $4q$ (modulo $4q$) such that $x^2\equiv q\pmod{p}$ has a solution iff $p\equiv c\pmod{4q}$ for some $c\in\mathbb{L}_{4q}$. Moreover, $\mathbb{L}_{4q}$ is the only subgroup of $\mathbb{U}_{4q}$ of half order containing $-1$.
Considering the ring $\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt{2}]$, for any odd prime $p$ it is known that the equation $x^2\equiv 2\pmod{p}$ has a solution iff the equation $x^2-2y^2=p$ has a solution in the integers. We ask whether this can be extended in the context of $\mathbb{Z}[\sqrt[n]{2}]$ with $n\geq 2$, namely: for any prime $p\equiv 1\pmod{n}$, is it true that $x^n\equiv 2\pmod{p}$ has a solution iff the equation $D^2_n(x_0,\ldots,x_{n-1})=p$ has a solution in the integers? Here $D^2_n(\bar{x})$ represents the norm of the field extension $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt[n]{2})$ of $\mathbb{Q}$. We solve some weak versions of this problem, where equality with $p$ is replaced by $0\pmod{p}$ (divisible by $p$), and the "norm" $D^r_n(\bar{x})$ is considered for any $r\in\mathbb{Z}$ in the place of $2$.
Let $p$ be an odd prime number. In this article, we study the number of quadratic residues and non-residues modulo $p$ which are multiples of $2$ or $3$ or $4$ and lying in the interval $[1, p-1]$, by applying the Dirichlet's class number formula for the imaginary quadratic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-p})$.
Let $C_n$ be the $n$th Catalan number. For any prime $p \geq 5$ we show that the set $\{C_n : n \in \mathbb{N} \}$ contains all residues mod $p$. In addition all residues are attained infinitely often. Any positive integer can be expressed as the product of central binomial coefficients modulo $p$. The directed sub-graph of the automata for $C_n \mod p$ consisting of the constant states and transitions between them has a cycle which visits all vertices.
In this paper we study some products related to quadratic residues and quartic residues modulo primes. Let $p$ be an odd prime and let $A$ be any integer. We mainly determine completely the product $$f_p(A):=\prod_{1\le i,j\le(p-1)/2\atop p\nmid i^2-Aij-j^2}(i^2-Aij-j^2)$$ modulo $p$; for example, if $p\equiv1\pmod4$ then $$f_p(A)\equiv\begin{cases}-(A^2+4)^{(p-1)/4}\pmod p&\text{if}\ (\frac{A^2+4}p)=1, \\(-A^2-4)^{(p-1)/4}\pmod p&\text{if}\ (\frac{A^2+4}p)=-1,\end{cases}$$ where $(\frac{\cdot}p)$ denotes the Legendre symbol. We also determine $$\prod^{(p-1)/2}_{i,j=1\atop p\nmid 2i^2+5ij+2j^2…
We study the three term recurrence modulo m. In particular, we prove that Pell numbers modulo m is residue complete if and only m is 2, a power of 3, or a power of 5. Pell-Lucas numbers modulo m is residue complete if and only if m is a power of 3.
Let $f(x)$ be an irreducible polynomial with integer coefficients of degree at least two. Hooley proved that the roots of the congruence equation $f(x)\equiv 0\mod n$ is uniformly distributed. as a parallel of Hooley's theorem under ideal theoretical setting, we prove the uniformity of the distribution of residues of an algebraic number modulo degree one ideals. Then using this result we show that the roots of a system of polynomial congruences are uniformly distributed. Finally, the distribution of digits of n-adic expansions of an algebraic number is discussed.
Let $p$ be a sufficiently large prime number, $n$ be a positive odd integer with $n|\,p-1$ and $n>p^\varepsilon $, where $\varepsilon$ is a sufficiently small constant. Let $k(p,\,n)$ denote the least positive integer $k$ such that for $x=-k,\,\dots,\,-1,\,1,\,2,\,\dots,\,k$, the numbers $x^n\pmod p$ yield all the non-zero $n$-th power residues modulo $p$. In this paper, we shall prove $$ k(p,\,n)=O(p^{1-δ}), $$ which improves a result of S. Chowla and H. London in the case of large $n$.
For positive integers $q$, Dirichlet's theorem states that there are infinitely many primes in each reduced residue class modulo $q$. A stronger form of the theorem states that the primes are equidistributed among the $φ(q)$ reduced residue classes modulo $q$. This paper considers patterns of sequences of consecutive primes $(p_n, p_{n+1}, \ldots, p_{n+k})$ modulo $q$. Numerical evidence suggests a preference for certain prime patterns. For example, computed frequencies of the pattern $(a,a)$ modulo $q$ up to $x$ are much less than the expected frequency $π(x)/φ(q)^2$. We begin to rigorously c…
We prove that any prime $p$ satisfying $ϕ(p-1)\leq (p-1)/4$ contains two consecutive quadratic non-residues modulo $p$ neither of which is a primitive root modulo $p$.
Let $p>3$ be a prime, and let $(\frac{\cdot}p)$ be the Legendre symbol. Let $b\in\mathbb Z$ and $\varepsilon\in\{\pm 1\}$. We mainly prove that $$\left|\left\{N_p(a,b):\ 1<a<p\ \text{and}\ \left(\frac ap\right)=\varepsilon\right\}\right|=\frac{3-(\frac{-1}p)}2,$$ where $N_p(a,b)$ is the number of positive integers $x<p/2$ with $\{x^2+b\}_p>\{ax^2+b\}_p$, and $\{m\}_p$ with $m\in\mathbb{Z}$ is the least nonnegative residue of $m$ modulo $p$.
This paper studies the largest cycles consisted by the quadratic residues modulo prime numbers. We give some formulae about the maximum length of the cycles. Especially, the formula for modulo Fermat primes is given.
It is well known that when a prime $p$ is congruent to 1 modulo 4, the sum of the quadratic residues equals the sum of the quadratic nonresidues. In this note we give analogous results for the case where $p$ is congruent to 3 modulo 4.
We define a new congruence relation on the set of integers, leading to a group similar to the multiplicative group of integers modulo $n$. It makes use of a symmetry almost omnipresent in modular multiplications and halves the number of residue classes. Using it, we are able to give an elegant description of some results due to Carl Schick, others are reduced to well-known theorems from algebra and number theory. Many concepts from number theory such as quadratic residues and primitive roots are equally applicable. It brings noticeable advantages in studying powers of odd primes, and in partic…
The multplicative order of an integer g modulo a prime p, with p coprime to g, is defined to be the smallest positive integer k such that g^k is congruent to 1 modulo p. For fixed integers g and d the distribution of this order over residue classes mod d is considered as p runs over the primes. An overview is given of the most significant of my results on this problem obtained (mainly) in the three part series of papers `On the distribution of the order and index of g (modulo p) over residue classes' I-III (appeared in the Journal of Number Theory, also available from the ArXiv).
Issai Schur once asked if it was possible to determine a bound, preferably using elementary methods, such that for all prime numbers p greater than the bound, the greatest number of consecutive quadratic non-residues modulo p is always less than the square root of p. This paper uses elementary methods to prove that 13 is the only prime number for which the greatest number of consecutive quadratic non-residues modulo p exceeds the square root of p.
We study the subgraph of the Young-Fibonacci graph induced by elements with odd $f$-statistic (the $f$-statistic of an element $w$ of a differential graded poset is the number of saturated chains from the minimal element of the poset to $w$). We show that this subgraph is a binary tree. Moreover, the odd residues of the $f$-statistics in a row of this tree equidistibute modulo any power two. This is equivalent to a purely number theoretic result about the equidistribution of residues modulo powers of two among the products of distinct odd numbers less than a fixed number.
We prove that the sequence $n!\,(\bmod\,p)$ occupies at least $\sqrt{\frac{3}{2}N}$ residue classes in the short interval $H\le n \le H+N$ and $N\gg p^{\frac{1}{4}}$ improving previously known trivial bound $\sqrt{N}.$ In the other direction, we estimate the average number of residue classes missed by the sequence $n!\,(\bmod\,p)$ for $p\le x.$
We use the Burgess bound and combinatorial sieve to obtain an upper bound on the number of primes $p$ in a dyadic interval $[Q,2Q]$ for which a given interval $[u+1,u+ψ(Q)]$ does not contain a quadratic non-residue modulo $p$. The bound is nontrivial for any function $ψ(Q)\to\infty$ as $Q\to\infty$. This is an analogue of the well known estimates on the smallest quadratic non-residue modulo $p$ on average over primes $p$, which corresponds to the choice $u=0$.
In this paper we study products of quadratic residues modulo odd primes and prove some identities involving quadratic residues. For instance, let $p$ be an odd prime. We prove that if $p\equiv5\pmod8$, then $$\prod_{0<x<p/2,(\frac{x}{p})=1}x\equiv(-1)^{1+r}\pmod p,$$ where $(\frac{\cdot}{p})$ is the Legendre symbol and $r$ is the number of $4$-th power residues modulo $p$ in the interval $(0,p/2)$. Our work involves class number formula, quartic Gauss sums, Stickelberger's congruence and values of Dirichlet L-series at negative integers.
We obtain some results about the repeated exponentiation modulo a prime power from the viewpoint of arithmetic dynamical systems. Especially, we extend two asymptotic formulas about periodic points and tails in the case of modulo a prime to the case of modulo a prime power.
We investigate the distribution of the function $ω(n)$, the number of distinct prime divisors of $n$, in residue classes modulo $q$ for natural numbers $q$ greater than 2. In particular we ask `prime number races' style questions, as suggested by Coons and Dahmen in their paper `On the residue class distribution of the number of prime divisors of an integer'.
In this paper, we prove a quantitative version of the statement that every nonempty finite subset of $\mathbb{N}^+$ is a set of quadratic residues for infinitely many primes of the form $[n^c]$ with $1\leqslant c\leqslant243/205$. Correspondingly, we can obtain a similar result for the case of quadratic non-residues under reasonable assumptions. These results generalize the previous ones obtained by S. Wright in certain aspects.
Nagell proved that for each prime $p\equiv 1\pmod{3}$, $p > 7$, there is a prime $q<2p^{1/2}$ that is a cubic residue modulo $p$. Here we show that for each fixed $ε> 0$, and each prime $p\equiv 1\pmod{3}$ with $p > p_0(ε)$, the number of prime cubic residues $q < p^{1/2+ε}$ exceeds $p^{ε/30}$. Our argument, like Nagell's, is rooted in the law of cubic reciprocity; somewhat surprisingly, character sum estimates play no role. We use the same method to establish related results about prime quadratic and biquadratic residues. For example, for all large primes $p$, there are more than $p^{1/9}$ pr…
We consider a problem of P. Erdos, A. M. Odlyzko and A. Sarkozy about the representation of residue classes modulo m by products of two not too large primes. While it seems that even the Extended Riemann Hypothesis is not powerful enough to achieve the expected results, here we obtain some unconditional results ``on average'' over moduli m and residue classes modulo m and somewhat stronger results when the average is restricted to prime moduli m = p. We also consider the analogous question wherein the primes are replaced by easier sequences so, quite naturally, we obtain much stronger results.
We obtain a nontrivial bound for cancellations between the Kloosterman sums modulo a large prime power with a prime argument running over very short interval, which in turn is based on a new estimate on bilinear sums of Kloosterman sums. These results are analogues of those obtained by various authors for Kloosterman sums modulo a prime. However the underlying technique is different and allows us to obtain nontrivial results starting from much shorter ranges.
We give explicit numerical estimates for the generalized Chebyshev functions. Explicit results of this kind are useful for estimating of computational complexity of algorithms which generates special primes. Such primes are needed to construct an elliptic curve over prime field using complex multiplication method.
We make many new observations on primitive roots modulo primes. For an odd prime $p$ and an integer $c$, we establish a theorem concerning $\sum_g(\frac{g+c}p)$, where $g$ runs over all the primitive roots modulo $p$ among $1,\ldots,p-1$, and $(\frac{\cdot}p)$ denotes the Legendre symbol. On the basis of our numerical computations, we formulate 35 conjectures involving primitive roots modulo primes. For example, we conjecture that for any prime $p$ there is a primitive root $g<p$ modulo $p$ with $g-1$ a square, and that for any prime $p>3$ there is a prime $q<p$ with the Bernoulli number $B_{q…
In 1958 E. Lehmer found an explicit description of those primes p for which a given prime q is a cubic residue. In this paper we demonstrate that a similar result may be obtained for cubic nonresidues, yielding a cubic character for fixed p that provides an effective means for ascertaining whether or not an arbitrary integer c is a cubic residue modulo p. As an illustration of this technique, we determine whether 1982 is a cubic residue modulo the 131-digit prime p=(3^19+5^82)/4, a question which is essentially impossible to answer with Lehmer's original criterion.
In this note, we revisit a result of Benli's and Pollack's on the number of small prime $k^{th}$ power residues. The proof is based on their idea of using reciprocity laws, but the argument is simplified and we prove a slightly stronger bound.
By some extremely simple arguments, we point out the following: (i) If n is the least positive k-th power non-residue modulo a positive integer m, then the greatest number of consecutive k-th power residues mod m is smaller than m/n. (ii) Let O_K be the ring of algebraic integers in a quadratic field $K=Q(\sqrt d)$ with d in {-1,-2,-3,-7,-11}. Then, for any irreducible $π\in O_K$ and positive integer k not relatively prime to $π\barπ-1$, there exists a k-th power non-residue $ω\in O_K$ modulo $π$ such that $|ω|<\sqrt{|π|}+0.65$.
This article starts a computational study of congruences of modular forms and modular Galois representations modulo prime powers. Algorithms are described that compute the maximum integer modulo which two monic coprime integral polynomials have a root in common in a sense that is defined. These techniques are applied to the study of congruences of modular forms and modular Galois representations modulo prime powers. Finally, some computational results with implications on the (non-)liftability of modular forms modulo prime powers and possible generalisations of level raising are presented.
Let $χ$ be a non-principal Dirichlet character modulo a prime $p$. Let $q_1<q_2$ denote the two smallest prime non-residues of $χ$. We give explicit upper bounds on $q_2$ that improve upon all known results. We also provide a good upper estimate on the product $q_1 q_2$ which has an upcoming application to the study of norm-Euclidean Galois fields.
We find asymptotics for $S_{K,c}(x)$, the number of positive integers below $x$ whose number of prime factors is $c \; \mathrm{mod}\; K$. We study this question in the context of Beurling integers.
In this article we prove level raising for cuspidal eigenforms modulo prime powers (for odd primes) of weight $k\geq 2$ and arbitrary character, extending the result in weight two established by the work of Tsaknias and Wiese and generalizing (partially) Diamond-Ribet's celebrated level raising theorems.
In this paper we will consider new bounds on the smallest primitive root modulo a prime. We will make more judicious use of the Pòlya--Vinogradov and Burgess inequalities, and use them to prove that the smallest primitive root is smaller than $p^{0.68}$ for all primes $p$.
We prove new mean value theorems for primes in arithmetic progressions to moduli larger than $x^{1/2}$, extending the Bombieri-Vinogradov theorem to moduli of size $x^{1/2+δ}$ which have conveniently sized divisors. The main feature of these estimates is that they are completely uniform with respect to the residue classes considered, unlike previous works on primes in arithmetic progressions to large moduli.
In this article we investigate the distribution of prime ideals of residue degree bigger than one across the ideal classes in the class group of a number field $L$. A criterion for the class group of $L$ being generated by the classes of prime ideals of residue degree $f>1$ is provided. Further, some consequences of this study on the solvability of norm equations for $L/\mathbb{Q}$ and on the problem of finding annihilators for relative extensions are discussed.
In this note we study Kloosterman sums twisted by a multiplicative characters modulo a prime power. We show, by an elementary calculation, that these sums become equidistributed on the real line with respect to a suitable measure.
Let $\mathcal{A}$ denote a finite set of arithmetic progressions of positive integers and let $s \geq 2$ be an integer. If the cardinality of $\mathcal{A}$ is at least 2 and $U$ is the union formed by taking certain arithmetic progressions of length $s$ from each element of $\mathcal{A}$, we calculate the asymptotic density of the set of all prime numbers $p$ such that $U$ is a set of quadratic residues (respectively, quadratic non-residues) of $p$.
We consider the reduction of an elliptic curve defined over the rational numbers modulo primes in a given arithmetic progression and investigate how often the subgroup of rational points of this reduced curve is cyclic as a special case of Serre's Cyclicity Conjecture.
Fix m >= 1 and let E be an elliptic curve over Q with complex multiplication. We formulate conjectures on the density of primes p (congruent to one modulo m) for which the pth Fourier coefficient of E is an mth power modulo p; often these densities differ from the naive expectation of 1/m. We also prove our conjectures for m dividing the number of roots of unity lying in the CM field of E; the most involved case is m=4 and complex multiplication by Q(i).
We discuss a clean level lowering theorem modulo prime powers for weight $2$ cusp forms. Furthermore, we illustrate how this can be used to completely solve certain twisted Fermat equations $ax^n+by^n+cz^n=0$.
A classical problem in analytic number theory is to study the distribution of $αp$ modulo 1, where $α$ is irrational and $p$ runs over the set of primes. We consider the subsequence generated by the primes $p$ such that $p+2$ is an almost-prime (the existence of infinitely many such $p$ is another topical result in prime number theory) and prove that its distribution has a similar property.
