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In number theory, the Fermat quotient of an integer a with respect to an odd prime p is dened as:[1][2][3][4]
or
.
This article is about the former. For the latter see p-derivation.
If the base a is coprime to the exponent p then Fermat's little theorem says that qp(a) will be an integer. The quotient is named after Pierre de Fermat.
Contents
1
2
3
4
5
Properties
Special Values
Generalized Wieferich primes
References
External links
Properties
From the denition, it is obvious that
, since p 1 is even.
In 1850 Gotthold Eisenstein proved that if a and b are both coprime to p, then:[5]
;
;
;
;
;
.
Eisenstein likened the rst two of these congruences to properties of logarithms. These properties imply
;
.
In 1895 Dmitry Mirimanoff pointed out that an iteration of Eisenstein's rules gives the corollary:[6]
Special Values
Eisenstein discovered that the Fermat quotient with base 2 could be expressed in terms of the sum of the reciprocals mod p of the numbers lying in the
rst half of the range {1, p 1}:
Later writers showed that the number of terms required in such a representation could be reduced from 1/2 to 1/4, 1/5, or even 1/6:
[8]
[9]
[10][11]
Eisenstein's series also has an increasingly complex connection to the Fermat quotients with other bases, the rst few examples being:
[12]
[13]
p (checked up to 5 1013)
OEIS sequence
A000040
2 1093, 3511
A001220
3 11, 1006003
A014127
4 1093, 3511
5 2, 20771, 40487, 53471161, 1645333507, 6692367337, 188748146801 A123692
6 66161, 534851, 3152573
A212583
7 5, 491531
A123693
8 3, 1093, 3511
9 2, 11, 1006003
10 3, 487, 56598313
A045616
11 71
12 2693, 123653
A111027
13 2, 863, 1747591
A128667
A234810
15 29131, 119327070011
A242741
16 1093, 3511
17 2, 3, 46021, 48947, 478225523351
A128668
A244260
A090968
A242982
21 2
22 13, 673, 1595813, 492366587, 9809862296159
23 13, 2481757, 13703077, 15546404183, 2549536629329
24 5, 25633
25 2, 20771, 40487, 53471161, 1645333507, 6692367337, 188748146801
A128669
References
1. Weisstein, Eric W., "Fermat Quotient" (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/FermatQuotient.html), MathWorld.
2. Fermat Quotient (http://primes.utm.edu/glossary/xpage/FermatQuotient.html) at The Prime Glossary
3. Paulo Ribenboim, 13 Lectures on Fermat's Last Theorem (1979), especially pp. 152, 159-161.
4. Paulo Ribenboim, My Numbers, My Friends: Popular Lectures on Number Theory (2000), p. 216.
5. Gotthold Eisenstein, "Neue Gattung zahlentheoret. Funktionen, die v. 2 Elementen abhangen und durch gewisse lineare Funktional-Gleichungen denirt werden,"
Bericht ber die zur Bekanntmachung geeigneten Verhandlungen der Knigl. Preu. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1850, 36-42
6. Dmitry Mirimanoff, "Sur la congruence (rp 1 1):p = qr (mod p)," Journal fr die reine und angewandte Mathematik 115 (1895): 295-300
7. Paul Bachmann, Niedere Zahlentheorie, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1902), 1:159.
8. James Whitbread Lee Glaisher, "On the Residues of rp 1 to Modulus p2, p3, etc.," Quarterly Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics 32 (1901): 1-27.
9. Ladislav Skula, "A note on some relations among special sums of reciprocals modulo p," Mathematica Slovaca 58 (2008): 5-10.
10. Emma Lehmer, "On Congruences involving Bernoulli Numbers and the Quotients of Fermat and Wilson," Annals of Mathematics 39 (1938): 350360, pp. 356ff.
11. Karl Dilcher and Ladislav Skula, "A New Criterion for the First Case of Fermat's Last Theorem," Mathematics of Computation 64 (1995): 363-392.
12. James Whitbread Lee Glaisher, "A General Congruence Theorem relating to the Bernoullian Function," Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society 33
(1900-1901): 27-56, at pp. 49-50.
13. Mathias Lerch, "Zur Theorie des Fermatschen Quotienten," Mathematische Annalen 60 (1905): 471-490.
14. Wieferich primes to base 1052 (http://www.fermatquotient.com/FermatQuotienten/FermQ_Sort)
15. Wieferich primes to base 10125 (http://www.fermatquotient.com/FermatQuotienten/FermQ_Sorg)
External links
Gottfried Helms. Fermat-/Euler-quotients (ap-1 1)/pk with arbitrary k (http://go.helms-net.de/math/expdioph/fermatquotients.pdf).
Richard Fischer. Fermat quotients B^(P-1) == 1 (mod P^2) (http://www.fermatquotient.com/FermatQuotienten/).
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Categories: Number theory
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