Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Yimin Ge
Abstract
The well known Euler’s Theorem states that xϕ(m) ≡ 1 (mod m) for
every positive integer m and every integer x coprime to m, where ϕ is
the Euler’s Totient Function.
However, with some exceptions, ϕ(m) is usually not the least positive
integer t so that xt ≡ 1 (mod m) holds for all integers x with gcd(x, m) =
1 and can be ”optimized” to the so-called Carmichael Function λ(m).
Properties of this function keep appearing in Olympiad problems and
can often be very useful. The purpose of this note is to state and prove
some of these properties and to give some examples of how they can be
applied in Olympiad problems.
Introduction
The following problem was given at the 3rd round of the 2006 Iranian
National Olympiad:
Problem 1. Let n be a positive integer and let d be the least positive
integer, so that ad ≡ 1 (mod n) holds for every integer a with gcd(a, n) =
1. Prove that there exists an integer b so that ordn (b) = d.
We will see that this problem is a special case of a more general result,
but before proving it, we shall cover some theory.
Definition 1. For a positive integer m and an integer x with gcd(x, m) =
1, the order of x modulo m, denoted by ordm (x), is the least positive
integer t, so that xt ≡ 1 (mod m).
Euler’s Theorem does not only imply that ordm (x) exists but implies
ordm (x) ≤ ϕ(m).
Lemma 1. Let m be a positive integer and x be an integer coprime to
m. Then xn ≡ 1 (mod m) if and only if ordm (x) | n. Furthermore,
xn1 ≡ xn2 (mod m) if and only if ordm (x) | (n1 − n2 ).
Proof. Let d = ordm (x). It is clear that d | n implies xn ≡ 1 (mod m).
On the other hand, if xn ≡ 1 (mod m), then there exist integers q, r
such that n = qd + r, 0 ≤ r ≤ d − 1, and
But 0 ≤ r ≤ d − 1, so r = 0.
Definition 2. Let m be a positive integer. An integer g is called a
primitive root modulo m if ordm (g) = ϕ(m).
Primitive roots however do not exist for every positive integer m.
for all integers x coprime to ab. Now, from Lemma 3 it follows that d1 | d
and d2 | d is a necessary and sufficient condition for (1) and since d is the
least positive integer satisfying (1), it follows that d = lcm(d1 , d2 ). We
thus obtain
Lemma 6. For any coprime positive integers a and b, λ(ab) = lcm(λ(a), λ(b)).
We see that Lemma 2, 4 and 6 already give a complete formula for
λ(m). We summarize:
Theorem 1. Let m be a positive integer greater than 1. Then
ϕ(m) for m = 2, 4, pk , where p ≥ 3 is prime
k−2
2 for m = 2k , where k ≥ 3
r
λ(m) = Y .
lcm(λ(pk11 ), . . . , λ(pkr r )) for m = pki i , where pi are distinct
i=1
prime numbers.
We can now return to the beginning of this note and solve Problem
1.
Lemma 7. For any positive integer m, there exists an integer x so that
ordm (x) = λ(m).
Proof. Let m = pk11 · . . . · pkr r be the prime factorization of m and let x be
a solution of the congruence system
where gi are integers satisfying ordpki (x) = λ(pki i ) respectively (they ex-
i
ist by Lemma 2 and 5). Such an x exists by the Chinese Remainder
Theorem.
Then by Lemma 1, λ(pki i ) = ordpki (x) | ordm (x) for all i = 1, . . . , r.
i
Hence
ordm (x) ≥ lcm(λ(pk11 ), . . . , λ(pkr r )) = λ(m).
But ordm (x) cannot exceed λ(m), so ordm (x) = λ(m).
However, Lemma 7 can be generalized to
References
[1] Mathlinks, Order,
http://www.mathlinks.ro/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=108204
[2] Mathlinks, Primitive root,
http://www.mathlinks.ro/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=55473
[3] Mathlinks, (2k ) | (3m + 5),
http://www.mathlinks.ro/Forum/viewtopic.php?t=1912