A Bad Intro to Quadratic Reciprocity

Royce Yao
11 June 2023

Formatting done by evan.sty

§1 Units
We know that for each positive integer n ≥ 2, taking (mod n) allows us to get a group
Zn/Z under addition.
Elements of this group are representation for the entire set of elements with the same
remainder under division. This can be checked to be well-defined

[a]n = {. . . , a − k, a, a + k, . . . }.
[a]n + [b]n = [a + b]n

holds.
However, it can also be seen that

[a]n · [b]n = [a · b]n

This raise a natural question: when we can do something similar for residues under
multiplication?

§1.1 Construction
Suppose that we naively take the case of Z6/Z and endow it with multiplication. While
[1]6 is an indentity element, and multiplication being associative carries over, we run into
a problem with inverses.
Both

[1]6 · [0]6 = [0]6

[2]6 · [0]6 = [0]6

hold, so there isn’t an inverse to [0]6 . As such, this isn’t a group. However, it turns
getting rid of the elements without these modular inverses gives a group.

Definition 1.1 (Modular Inverses). Let the modular inverse, if it exists, of [a]n be some
[b]n such that
[a]n · [b]n = [1]n .
An element with a modular inverse is called a unit.

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Example 1.2
Find the units when n = 6.

For this, we can construct the multiplication table

0 1 2 3 4 5
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1 0 1 2 3 4 5
2 0 2 4 0 2 4
3 0 3 0 3 0 3
4 0 4 2 0 4 2
5 0 5 4 3 2 1
It turns out that only 1 and 5 seem to be units. They are also the only residues
relatively prime to 6. As a matter of fact, we can prove this.

Theorem 1.3 (Unit ⇐⇒ Relatively Prime)

An element [a]n is a unit if and only if gcd(a, n) = 1 where a is any representative.

Proof. Suppose that gcd(a, n) = 1. Then consider the infinite sequence

a, a2 , a3 , · · ·
All elements of this are also relatively prime with n. Since there are only finitely many
residues, there must exist integers p < q such that ap ≡ aq (mod n). However, then
n | ap (aq−p − 1)
which in turn means that aq−p ≡ 1 (mod n). As such, aq−p−1 is an inverse of a.
Now suppose that gcd(a, n) = d > 1. Then, for any residue b, d | ab. Since d | n, it
follows that ab can not be 1 (mod n).
Thus, we remain only with the ϕ(n) relatively prime residues that form a group. This
group is called the group of units Un .
Exercise 1.4. Compute U4 , U5 , U7 and U9 .

§1.2 Primitive Roots

This raises the question of how Un decomposes. As a matter of fact, Group Theory gives
us the following classification theorem for decomposing finite Abelian groups such as Un .

Theorem 1.5 (Fundamental Theorem of Finite Abelian Groups)

If G is a finite Abelian group, then

G∼
= Ca1 × Ca2 × Ca3 · · · × Cak

for some integers ai such that a1 · a2 · . . . ak = |G|.

However, this does not give us actual decompositions, it just guarenteeds the existence
of one.
A subcase is when Un is directly isomorphic to a cyclic group.

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Theorem 1.6 (Primitive Roots)

If n is a prime odd power, then

Un ∼
= Cϕ(n)

In other words, there exists a g ∈ Un such that for each u ∈ Un , u = g k for some k.
Proofs of this can be decently elementary.

Lemma 1.7 (Un decomposition)

If n = pe11 pe22 . . . pekk is a prime factorization, then

Un ∼
= Upe11 × Upe22 × · · · × Upek
k

Proof. Take a isomorphism a → (a (mod pe11 ), a (mod pe22 ), . . . ).

Proposition 1.8 (U2k decomposition)

For k = 0, 1, 2 it follows that
U2k ∼
= C2k−1
or in other words they have primitive roots.
For k ≥ 3,
U2k ∼
= C2 × C2k−2

This allows us to decompose units. Considering U2k in a bit more detail allows us to
get the cyclic group decomposition as promised.

Example 1.9
Find the number of integers 1 ≤ a ≤ 600 such 600 | a10 − 1.

Note that this is equivalent to the number of elements in U600 with order dividing 10.
We first decompose
U600 ∼
= U8 × U3 × U25 ∼
= C2 × C2 × C2 × C4 × C5
The order of an element is the same as the lcm of its order in each of the cyclic groups.
Thus, the order in each cyclic group componentwise divides 10. The answer is thus
2 · 2 · 2 · 2 · 1 = 16

§2 Quadratic Residues
A quadratic residue is the following
Definition 2.1 (Quadratic Residue). A residue is q is quadratic (mod n) if there exists
x such
x2 ≡ q (mod n)
Else, a residue is nonquadratic.
We use the abbreviations QR and NQR here.

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Let Qn be the subset of Un which is a QR.

Exercise 2.2. Find Q9 .

§2.1 Quadratic Residues mod p

Take p as an odd prime here, and let g be a primitive root of p. The units (mod p) are
then
g 0 , g 1 , g 2 , . . . , g p−2
in some order.
It’s easy enough to find the quadratic units then, its just every other power of g (as
p − 1 is even)
g 0 , g 1 , g 2 , . . . , g p−2

p−1
This gives us that there are 2 primitive roots.

Proposition 2.3
The product of two residues is a NQR if and only if exactly one of them is a NQR.
As such, Qn is a subgroup of Un .

Proof. Express as primitive roots.

§2.2 General Quadratic Residues

Proposition 2.4
a ∈ Qp if and only if a ∈ Qpk for odd primes p.

Proof. The converse follows immediately. Else, if a ∈ Qpk such b2 ≡ a (mod pk ),

considering
b2 , (b + pk )2 , (b + 2pk )2 . . .
gives that a ∈ Qpk+1 (as p ̸= 2)

Proposition 2.5 (Qn decomposition)

Once again, we can decompose

Qn ∼
= Qpe11 × Qpe22 × · · · × Qpek
k

§2.3 Legendre Symbol

Definition 2.6 (Legendre Symbol). Let a be an number and p an odd prime. Then the
Legendre symbol is defined as

   0 p|a
a
= −1 a ̸∈ Qn , a ̸= 0
p 
1 a ∈ Qn


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Using multiplication properties of QRs and NQRs, we get the following.

Proposition 2.7 (Legendre Symbol is Multiplicative)

It follows that      
a b ab
· =
p p p
.

SImilarily, we get a simple criterion for whether a root is quadratic.

Proposition 2.8 (Euler’s Criterion)

We have that  
p−1 a
a 2 ≡ (mod p)
p

As a matter of fact, a surprising relation holds.

Theorem 2.9 (Quadratic Reciprocity)

  
p q p−1 q−1
= (−1) 2 · 2
q p

Using this and the multiplication property allows us to simplify large Legendre symbols.

§3 Applications
Problem 3.1 (AIME I 2016/12). Find the least positive integer m such that m2 − m + 11
is a product of at least four not necessarily distinct primes.

Problem 3.2 (IMO 1986/1). Let d be any positive integer not equal to 2, 5 or 13. Show
that one can find distinct a, b in the set {2, 5, 13, d} such that ab − 1 is not a perfect
square.

Problem 3.3 (IMO 2005/4). Determine all positive integers relatively prime to all the
terms of the infinite sequence

an = 2n + 3n + 6n − 1, n ≥ 1.

Problem 3.4 (Christmas Theorem). Show that an odd prime p can be expressed as the
sum of two squares if and only if p is 1 (mod 4).

Problem 3.5. Let p be a prime and n a positive integer. Determine the remainder when
1n + 2n + · · · + (p − 1)n is divided by p, as a function of n and p.
1 1
Problem 3.6 (ARML 2022 I-10). The decimal expansion of the fraction 664349 = 27343·243
consists of an infinitely repeating block of n digits. Compute the least possible value of n.

Problem 3.7 (OMMC 2023 Final P8). Let p be a prime. Suppose the mean of the
nonzero quadratic residues mod p is less than p2 . Show that the median of the nonzero
quadratic residues mod p is less than p2 .