Sunday, 20 September 2015

congruences - Number of kth Roots modulo a prime?




So I'm having a bit of trouble proving the following theorem:



Suppose that p is a prime, kN and bZ. Show that the number of kth roots of b modulo p is either 0 or (k,p1) (note that (,)gcd).



Here is my attempt.



If there are 0 roots then we are done.



Suppose now that the congruence x^k \equiv b \mod{p} has a solution, say x \equiv r \mod{p} for some r \in \{0, 1, 2, \dots, p - 1\}. We know that p has exactly \phi(p - 1) primitive roots and that a^{v\phi(n) + 1} \equiv a \mod{p} for any a \in \mathbb{Z}. Now, if (r,p) \ne 1, then either r = 1 or p \vert r. If r = 1, then we must have x^k \equiv 1 \mod{p}. We know from a previous theorem that the order of any number modulo a prime must divide p - 1, so (k,p - 1) = k (I'm not sure where to go from here). If p \vert r , then x \equiv 0 \mod{p} \Rightarrow x^k \equiv 0 \mod{p} \Rightarrow b \equiv 0 \mod{p} (again no idea if I'm headed in the right direction)...




Suppose that (r,p) = 1. Then r^k \equiv b \mod{p} \Rightarrow r^{k\phi(p)} \equiv b^{\phi(p)} \Rightarrow b^{p - 1} \equiv 1 \mod{p}. I know that there are \phi(p - 1) such b that satisfy this, but again, I have no idea where this is going..



I think it's likely that I'm just completely venturing out in the wrong direction here. Even a nudge in the right direction would be appreciated.


Answer



If b \not \equiv 0\bmod p and x^k \equiv b\bmod p has one solution x=a then the other solutions are x= a\zeta where \zeta^k = 1, which has \# \{ \zeta \bmod p, \text{ord}(\zeta)\ |\ k\}=\# \{ \zeta \bmod p, \text{ord}(\zeta)\ |\ (k,p-1)\}= (k,p-1) solutions, since \mathbb{Z}/p \mathbb{Z}^\times is cyclic with p-1 elements so it contains an element \mu of order (k,p-1) and \zeta^k=1 \implies \zeta = \mu^n


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