English

On the number of solutions of a restricted linear congruence

Number Theory 2018-05-08 v1

Abstract

Consider the linear congruence equation a1sx1++aksxkb(mod ns) where ai,bZ,sN{a_1^{s}x_1+\ldots+a_k^{s} x_k \equiv b\,(\text{mod } n^s)}\text { where } a_i,b\in\mathbb{Z},s\in\mathbb{N} Denote by (a,b)s(a,b)_s the largest lsNl^s\in\mathbb{N} which divides aa and bb simultaneously. Given tint_i|n, we seek solutions x1,,xkZk\langle x_1,\ldots,x_k\rangle\in\mathbb{Z}^k for this linear congruence with the restrictions (xi,ns)s=tis(x_i,n^s)_s=t_i^s. Bibak et al. [J. Number Theory, 171:128-144, 2017] considered the above linear congruence with s=1s=1 and gave a formula for the number of solutions in terms of the Ramanujan sums. In this paper, we derive a formula for the number of solutions of the above congruence for arbitrary sNs\in\mathbb{N} which involves the generalized Ramanujan sums defined by E. Cohen [Duke Math. J, 16(85-90):2, 1949]

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1708.04939,
  title  = {On the number of solutions of a restricted linear congruence},
  author = {K Vishnu Namboothiri},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1708.04939},
  year   = {2018}
}