Proofs of quadratic reciprocity

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In number theory, the law of quadratic reciprocity, like the Pythagorean theorem, has lent itself to an unusual
number of proofs. Several hundred proofs of the law of quadratic reciprocity have been found.

Contents
1 Proofs that are accessible
2 Eisenstein's proof
2.1 Proof of Eisenstein's lemma
3 Proof using Quadratic Gauss Sums
3.1 The Second Supplemental Case
3.2 The general case
4 Proof using algebraic number theory
4.1 Cyclotomic field setup
4.2 The Frobenius automorphism
4.3 Completing the proof
5 References
6 External links

Proofs that are accessible

Of relatively elementary, combinatorial proofs, there are two which apply types of double counting. One by
Gotthold Eisenstein counts lattice points. Another applies Zolotarev's lemma to Z/pqZ expressed by the
Chinese remainder theorem as Z/pZZ/qZ, and calculates the signature of a permutation.

Eisenstein's proof
Eisenstein's proof of quadratic reciprocity is a simplification of Gauss's third proof. It is more geometrically
intuitive and requires less technical manipulation.

The point of departure is "Eisenstein's lemma", which states that for distinct odd primes p, q,

where denotes the floor function (the largest integer less than or equal to x), and where the sum is taken
over the even integers u = 2, 4, 6, ..., p1. For example,

This result is very similar to Gauss's lemma, and can be proved in a similar fashion (proof given below).

Using this representation of (q/p), the main argument is quite elegant. The sum counts the number
of lattice points with even x-coordinate in the interior of the triangle ABC in the following diagram:
 Lattice point diagram Example showing lattice points inside ABC with
even x-coordinates, for p = 11 and q = 7

Because each column has an even number of points (namely q1 points), the number of such lattice points in
the region BCYX is the same modulo 2 as the number of such points in the region CZY:

The number of points with even x-coordinate inside

BCYX (marked by O's) is equal modulo 2 to the
number of such points in CZY (marked by X's)

Then by flipping the diagram in both axes, we see that the number of points with even x-coordinate inside CZY
is the same as the number of points inside AXY having odd x-coordinates:

The number of points with even x-coordinate inside

CZY is equal to the number of points with odd x-
coordinate inside AXY

The conclusion is that

where is the total number of lattice points in the interior of AYX. Switching p and q, the same argument
shows that

where is the number of lattice points in the interior of WYA. Since there are no lattice points on the line AY
itself (because p and q are relatively prime), and since the total number of points in the rectangle WYXA is

we obtain finally

Proof of Eisenstein's lemma

For an even integer u in the range 1 u p1, denote by r(u) the least positive residue of qu modulo p. (For
example, for p = 11, q = 7, we allow u = 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and the corresponding values of r(u) are 3, 6, 9, 1, 4.)
The numbers (1)r(u)r(u), again treated as least positive residues modulo p, are all even (in our running
example, they are 8, 6, 2, 10, 4.) Furthermore, they are all distinct, because if (1)r(u)r(u) (1)r(t)r(t) (mod p),
then we may divide out by q to obtain u t (mod p). This forces u t (mod p), because both u and t are even,
whereas p is odd. Since there exactly (p1)/2 of them and they are distinct, they must be simply a
rearrangement of the even integers 2, 4, ..., p1. Multiplying them together, we obtain

Dividing out successively by 2, 4, ..., p1 on both sides (which is permissible since none of them are divisible
by p) and rearranging, we have

On the other hand, by the definition of r(u) and the floor function,

and so since p is odd and u is even, we see that and r(u) are congruent modulo 2. Finally this shows
that

We are finished because the left hand side is just an alternative expression for (q/p).

Proof using Quadratic Gauss Sums

The proof of Quadratic Reciprocity using Gauss sums is one of the more common and classic proofs. These
proofs work by comparing computations of single values in two different ways, one using Euler's Criterion and
the other using the Binomial theorem. As an example of how Euler's criterion is used, we can use it to give a
quick proof of the first supplemental case of determining for an odd prime p: By Euler's criterion

, but since both sides of the equivalence are 1 and p is odd, we can deduce that

The Second Supplemental Case

Let , a primitive 8th root of unity and set . Since and we see that
. Because is an algebraic integer, if p is an odd prime it makes sense to talk about it modulo p.
(Formally we are considering the commutative ring formed by factoring the algebraic integers with the ideal
generated by p. Because is not an algebraic integer, 1, 2, ..., p are distinct elements of .) Using
Euler's criterion, it follows that

We can then say that

But we can also compute using the binomial theorem. Because the cross terms in the binomial
expansion all contain factors of p, we find that . We can evaluate this more exactly
by breaking this up into two cases

.
.

These are the only options for a prime modulo 8 and both of these cases can be computed using the exponential
form . We can write this succinctly for all odd primes p as

Combining these two expressions for and multiplying through by we find that

. Since both and are 1 and 2 is invertible modulo p, we

can conclude that

The general case

The idea for the general proof follows the above supplemental case: Find an algebraic integer that somehow
encodes the Legendre symbols for p, then find a relationship between Legendre symbols by computing the qth
power of this algebraic integer modulo q in two different ways, one using Euler's criterion the other using the
binomial theorem.
Let

where is a primitive pth root of unity. This is a Quadratic Gauss Sum. A fundamental property of
these Gauss sums is that

where . To put this in context of the next proof, the individual elements of the Gauss sum are in
the cyclotomic field but the above formula shows that the sum itself is a generator of the unique
quadratic field contained in L. Again, since the quadratic Gauss sum is an algebraic integer, we can use modular
arithmetic with it. Using this fundamental formula and Euler's criterion we find that

Therefore

Using the binomial theorem, we also find that , If we let a be a multiplicative

inverse of , then we can rewrite this sum as using the substitution ,

which doesn't affect the range of the sum. Since , we can then write

Using these two expressions for , and multiplying through by gives

Since is invertible modulo q, and the Legendre symbols are either 1, we can then conclude that

Proof using algebraic number theory

The proof presented here is by no means the simplest known; however, it is quite a deep one, in the sense that it
motivates some of the ideas of Artin reciprocity.

Cyclotomic field setup

Suppose that p is an odd prime. The action takes place inside the cyclotomic field
where p is a primitive pth root of unity. The basic theory of cyclotomic fields informs us that there is a
canonical isomorphism

which sends the automorphism a satisfying

to the element

(This is because the morphism of reduction from Z to Z/qZ is injective on the set of p-th roots of unity)

Now consider the subgroup H of squares of elements of G. Since G is cyclic, H has index 2 in G, so the
subfield corresponding to H under the Galois correspondence must be a quadratic extension of Q. (In fact it is
the unique quadratic extension of Q contained in L.) The Gaussian period theory determines which one; it turns
out to be

where

At this point we start to see a hint of quadratic reciprocity emerging from our framework. On one hand, the
image of H in

consists precisely of the (nonzero) quadratic residues modulo p. On the other hand, H is related to an attempt to
take the square root of p (or possibly of p). In other words, if now q is a prime (different from p), we have so
far shown that

The Frobenius automorphism

Choose any prime ideal of the ring of integers OL lying over q, which is unramified, and let

be the Frobenius automorphism associated to ; the characteristic property of is that

for any x in OL. (The existence of such a Frobenius element depends on quite a bit of algebraic number theory
machinery.)

The key fact about that we need is that for any subfield K of L,
Indeed, let be any ideal of OK below (and hence above q). Then, since

for any x in OK, we see that

is a Frobenius for . A standard result concerning is that its order is equal to the corresponding inertial
degree; that is,

The left hand side is equal to 1 if and only if fixes K, and the right hand side is equal to one if and only q
splits completely in K, so we are done.

Now, since the pth roots of unity are distinct modulo (i.e. the polynomial Xp 1 is separable in characteristic
q), we must have

that is, coincides with the automorphism q defined earlier. Taking K to be the quadratic field in which we
are interested, we obtain the equivalence

Completing the pr oof

Finally we must show that

Once we have done this, the law of quadratic reciprocity falls out immediately since

if p 1 (mod 4), and

if p -1 (mod 4).

To show the last equivalence, suppose first that

In this case, there is some integer x (not divisible by q) such that

say

for some integer c. Let

and consider the ideal

of K. It certainly divides the principal ideal (q). It cannot be equal to (q), since

is not divisible by q. It cannot be the unit ideal, because then

is divisible by q, which is again impossible. Therefore (q) must split in K.

Conversely, suppose that (q) splits, and let be a prime of K above q. Then

so we may choose some

where a and b are in Q. Actually, since

elementary theory of quadratic fields implies that the ring of integers of K is precisely

so the denominators of a and b are at worst equal to 2. Since q 2, we may safely multiply a and b by 2, and
assume that

where now a and b are in Z. In this case we have

so
However, q cannot divide b, since then also q divides a, which contradicts our choice of

Therefore, we may divide by b modulo q, to obtain

as desired.

References
Every textbook on elementary number theory (and quite a few on algebraic number theory) has a proof of
quadratic reciprocity. Two are especially noteworthy:

Lemmermeyer (2000) has many proofs (some in exercises) of both quadratic and higher-power reciprocity laws
and a discussion of their history. Its immense bibliography includes literature citations for 196 different
published proofs.

Ireland & Rosen (1990) also has many proofs of quadratic reciprocity (and many exercises), and covers the
cubic and biquadratic cases as well. Exercise 13.26 (p 202) says it all

Count the number of proofs to the law of quadratic reciprocity given thus far in this book
and devise another one.

Ireland, Kenneth; Rosen, Michael (1990), A Classical Introduction to Modern Number Theory, Graduate
Texts in Mathematics, Vol. 84 (2nd ed.), New York: Springer, ISBN 0-387-97329-X
Lemmermeyer, Franz (2000), Reciprocity Laws: from Euler to Eisenstein, Springer Monographs in
Mathematics, Berlin: Springer, ISBN 3-540-66957-4
Rousseau, G. (1991), "On the Quadratic Reciprocity Law" (PDF), Journal of the Australian
Mathematical Society (Series A), Cambridge University Press, 51: 423425, ISSN 1446-7887
Washington, Lawrence C. (2012), Introduction to Cyclotomic Fields, Graduate Texts in Mathematics,
Vol. 83 (2nd ed.), New York: Springer, ISBN 978-1-4612-7346-2

External links
Chronology of Proofs of the Quadratic Reciprocity Law (246 proofs!)

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