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MC35 Number Theory Ch09 Handout-209

This document discusses Fermat's Little Theorem, which states that if p is a prime number and a is a positive integer not divisible by p, then ap-1 is congruent to 1 modulo p. It provides examples of using Fermat's Little Theorem to find remainders when exponents are divided by primes. It also includes exercises for readers to practice applying Fermat's Little Theorem.

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SCARLETT CARSON
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332 views3 pages

MC35 Number Theory Ch09 Handout-209

This document discusses Fermat's Little Theorem, which states that if p is a prime number and a is a positive integer not divisible by p, then ap-1 is congruent to 1 modulo p. It provides examples of using Fermat's Little Theorem to find remainders when exponents are divided by primes. It also includes exercises for readers to practice applying Fermat's Little Theorem.

Uploaded by

SCARLETT CARSON
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter 9

Fermat’s Little Theorem

9.1 Notes
Fermat’s little theorem gives a nice method to determine remainders when certain
exponents are divided by primes. We give a couple definitions that will be useful here and
in the next chapter:

Definition 9.1.1. A set of integers is called a reduced residue system modulo m if every
integer in the set is relatively prime to m, and no two elements in the set are congruent
modulo m.

Example 9.1.2. Is {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} a reduced residue system modulo 10? What


about {1, 3, 7, 9}?

Solution. {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} is not a reduced residue system modulo 10, as it contains


even numbers which share a common factor (note that this is a complete residue system).
The set {1, 3, 7, 9} is a reduced residue system modulo 10.

Note that if p is a prime, then any reduced residue system has p − 1 elements. We
usually use the set {0, 1, 2, . . . , p − 1} for simplicity.

Theorem 9.1.3 (Fermat’s Little Theorem). Let p be a prime, and a be a positive integer
that is not divisible by p. Then

ap−1 ≡ 1 (mod p)

Proof. We can consider the reduced residue system {1, 2, 3, . . . , p − 1} modulo p. The
product of all elements in the set is (p − 1)!.
Suppose we multiply each element by a: {a, 2a, 3a, . . . , (p − 1)a}. We can show that
this set, taken modulo p, is also a reduced residue system by noting that no two elements
in the set are congruent modulo p. The product of the elements is ap−1 (p − 1)!.

38
MC35N Chapter 9. Fermat’s Little Theorem

Since the product of elements in {a, 2a, 3a, . . . , (p − 1)a} should also be the same as the
product of the elements in {1, 2, 3, . . . , p − 1}, taken modulo p, we have

ap−1 (p − 1)! ≡ (p − 1)! (mod p)


p−1
a (p − 1)! − (p − 1)! ≡ 0 (mod p)
p−1
(p − 1)!(a − 1) ≡ 0 (mod p)

Since (p − 1)! is not divisible by prime p, it follows that ap−1 − 1 is divisible by p, so


ap−1 ≡ 1 (mod p) as desired.

Equivalently, we have the following:


Corollary 9.1.4. Let p be a prime, and a be a positive integer. Then

ap ≡ a (mod p)

This is an equivalent statement of Fermat’s little theorem, without the restriction that
gcd(a, p) = 1.
711
Example 9.1.5. Find 35 (mod 7).
711
Solution. By Fermat’s little theorem, we have 36 ≡ 1 (mod 7), so 35 ≡ 3a (mod 7),
711 11
where a ≡ 5 (mod 6) and 0 ≤ a < 6. Since 5 ≡ −1 (mod 6), so a ≡ (−1)7 ≡ −1 ≡ 5
(mod 6). So we want 35 ≡ 243 ≡ 5 (mod 7).

Example 9.1.6. For how many primes p is 5p−2 ≡ 7 (mod p)?


Proof. Clearly p = 5 does not work, so assume p 6= 5. Then multiplying both sides by 5,
we get that 5p−1 ≡ 1 ≡ 35 (mod p). Then p | 34, so either p = 2 or p = 17. Thus there
are 2 solutions.

9.2 Examples
1. (Ata Pir) Find the remainder when 364 is divided by 67.

2. (Ata Pir) Find the largest two digit number x such that x7 ≡ 3 (mod 11).

3. (Harry Wang) If it exists, find a positive integer n for which 20n + 15n − 12n ≡ 0
(mod 29).

4. (Patrick Lin) (CHALLENGE) Find the remainder when

N = 19 + 29 + · · · + 349

is divided by 11.

39
MC35N Chapter 9. Fermat’s Little Theorem

9.3 Exercises
1. (SMT-2012-Advanced Topics-7) Determine the greatest common divisor of the ele-
ments of the set {n13 − n | n is an integer}.

2. (Ata Pir) Find the number of integer solutions of the equation x12 −11x6 y 5 +y 10 = 8.

3. (SMT-2019-Discrete-1) How many nonnegative integers less than 2019 are not solu-
tions to x8 + 4x6 − x2 + 3 ≡ 0 (mod 7)?

4. (BMT-2013-Discrete-4) Given f1 = 2x − 2 and k ≥ 2, define fk (x) = f1 (fk−1 (x)) to


be a real-valued function of x. Find the remainder when f2013 (2012) is divided by
the prime 2011.

40

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