Thursday, 1 December 2016

elementary number theory - Quadratic congruences in which modulus is divisible by constant term



There are two similar congruences:
x^2-6x\equiv16\pmod{512}\\ y^2-y\equiv16\pmod{512}
It is easy to see that the \gcd of all three parts in both of them is 16, x and x-6 are even and one of y and y-1 is odd. After also noticing x\not\equiv x-6\pmod{4} we have

x \equiv 0 \pmod{8}\\ or\\ x-6 \equiv 0 \pmod{8}
y \equiv 0 \pmod{16}\\ or\\ y-1 \equiv 0 \pmod{16}

Making substitutions x=8n,x=8n+6,y=16m,y=16m+1 I obtained congruences with modulus 32, but couldn't make it any further. I also discovered that the first congruence can be rewritten as (x+2)(x-8) \equiv 0\pmod{512} while -2 and 8 appear to be its solutions. However, it's still not clear to me whether there are more of them.
What am I missing? How can such congruences be solved?


Answer



The first one is easy. You need (x-8)(x+2) divisible by 512. Both x+8 and x-2 are even, but only one of them can have higher powers of 2 as factors. Thus, x\equiv 8\pmod {256} or x\equiv -2\pmod{256}.



The second requires more care.



First assuming y\equiv 0\pmod{16} you have y=16y_0 and 16y_0^2=y_0+1\pmod{32}



Since 16y_0^2 is even, y_0+1 is even, so y_0 is odd. When y_0 odd, 16y_0^2\equiv 16\pmod{32}, so y_0\equiv 15\pmod {32}= and y\equiv 16\cdot 15=240\pmod{512}.




Second, assume y=16y_0+1. Then 16y_0^2 \equiv 1-y_0\pmod{32} So y_0 is odd, 1-y_0\equiv 16\pmod {32}, or y_0\equiv 17\pmod{32}. So y\equiv 16\cdot 17+1=273\pmod{512}



So the two solutions are y\equiv 240,273\pmod{512}.



Note that the sum of these two values is 1\pmod{512}, as befits the two roots of any quadratic equation of the form x^2-x+C=0.



Indeed, we have (y-240)(y-273)\equiv y^2-y-16\pmod{512}, so these are the only solutions, since only one of y-240 and y-273 can be even.


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