Related papers: Quadratic residues that are not primitive roots
Suppose x^m + c*x^n is a permutation polynomial over GF(p), where p>5 is prime, m>n>0, and c is in GF(p)^*. We prove that gcd(m-n,p-1) is not 2 or 4. In the special case that either (p-1)/2 or (p-1)/4 is prime, this was conjectured in a…
For any odd prime number $p$, let $(\cdot|p)$ be the Legendre symbol, and let $n_1(p)<n_2(p)<\cdots$ be the sequence of positive nonresidues modulo $p$, i.e., $(n_k|p)=-1$ for each $k$. In 1957, Burgess showed that the upper bound…
We give a sufficient and necessary condition for a p-adic integer to have p-th root in the ring of p-adic integers. The same condition holds clearly for residues modulo p^k. We give a proof that Fermat's last theorem is false for p-adic…
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…
We examine linear sums of primitive roots and their inverses in finite fields. In particular, we refine a result by Li and Han, and show that every $p> 13$ has a pair of primitive roots $a$ and $b$ such that $a+ b$ and $a^{-1} + b^{-1}$ are…
We provide an explicit estimate on the least primitive root mod $p^{2}$. We show, in particular, that every prime $p$ has a primitive root mod $p^{2}$ that is less than $p^{0.99}$.
Let $p$ be an odd prime and let ${\mathbb F}_p$ denote the finite field with $p$ elements. Suppose that $g$ is a primitive root of ${\mathbb F}_p$. Define the permutation $\tau_g:\,{\mathcal H}_p\to{\mathcal H}_p$ by $$…
For odd primes $p$ we consider the factors \[ A(p)=\frac{p-\chi_4(p)}{p+\chi_4(p)}, \qquad \chi_4(p)= \begin{cases} 1,&p\equiv 1\pmod 4, \\ -1,&p\equiv 3\pmod 4, \end{cases} \] and study products of $A(p)$ restricted to unions of residue…
Let $p$ be an odd prime and let $m\not\equiv 0\pmod p$ be a rational p-adic integer. In this paper we reveal the connection between quartic residues and the sum $\sum_{k=0}^{[p/4]}\binom{4k}{2k}\frac 1{m^k}$, where $[x]$ is the greatest…
In this paper we establish some sophisticated congruences involving central binomial coefficients and Fibonacci numbers. For example, we show that if $p\not=2,5$ is a prime then $$\sum_{k=0}^{p-1}F_{2k}\binom{2k}{k}=(-1)^{[p/5]}(1-(p/5))…
We present a short, self-contained, and purely combinatorial proof of Linnik's theorem: for any $\varepsilon > 0$ there exists a constant $C_\varepsilon$ such that for any $N$, there are at most $C_\varepsilon$ primes $p \leqslant N$ such…
Let $\delta(p)$ tend to zero arbitrarily slowly as $p\to\infty$. We exhibit an explicit set $\mathcal{S}$ of primes $p$, defined in terms of simple functions of the prime factors of $p-1$, for which the least primitive root of $p$ is $\le…
For $q$ an odd prime power with $q>169$ we prove that there are always three consecutive primitive elements in the finite field $\mathbb{F}_{q}$. Indeed, there are precisely eleven values of $q \leq 169$ for which this is false. For $4\leq…
Paul Erdos posed the following question: Is there a prime number $p>5$ such that the residues of $2!$, $3!$,\ldots, $(p-1)!$ modulo $p$ all are distinct. In this short note, we give the negative answer on this question in an elementary way.
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)…
This note determines an effective asymptotic formula for the number of squarefree totients $p-1$ with a fixed primitive root $u\ne \pm 1, v^2$.
An ideal setting to exhibit infinite sets of primes $p$ relative to which an integer is a primitive root $\pmod p$ is provided by the B\'ezout subdomain $\widetilde{\mathbb{B}}:=\mathbb{Z}^{\mathbb{P}}/\mathfrak{U}$ of the valuation domain…
We show that if {1, b, c, d} is a D(-1) diophantine quadruple with b<c<d and c=1+s^2, then the cases s=p^k, s=2p^k, c=p and c=2p^k do not occur, where p is an odd prime and k is a positive integer. For the integer d=1+x^2, we show that it…
We investigate the linear complexities of the periodic 0-1 infinite sequences in which the periods are the sequence of the parities of the spacings between quadratic residues modulo a prime p, and the sequence of the parities of the…
Let $p$ be a prime. The $2$-primary part of the class group of the pure quartic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt[4]{p})$ has been determined by Parry and Lemmermeyer when $p \not\equiv \pm 1\bmod 16$. In this paper, we improve the known results in…