Friday, 2 January 2026

Exercise (4.1).20

Let $p$ be an odd prime and $x$ be a least positive residue modulo $p$.

Show that $x^{p+1} ≡ 4  \pmod p \implies  x ≡ 2$ or $x ≡ −2 \pmod p$.


Since $p$ is prime, Corollary 4.2 gives us

$$ x^p \equiv x \pmod p $$

Multiplying both sides by $x$ gives

$$ x^{p+1} \equiv x^2 \pmod p  $$

Comparing with $x^{p+1} ≡ 4  \pmod p$ we have

$$ x^2 \equiv 4 \pmod p $$

This has solutions $x \equiv 2 \pmod p$ and $x \equiv -2 \pmod p$. 


Note that the solutions $x \equiv -2 \pmod p$ are not the least positive because for $p=2$ there are no solutions, and for $p=5$ and larger the solutions are larger than $x \equiv 2 \pmod p$.