Fermat quotient

In number theory, the Fermat quotient of an integer a with respect to an odd prime p is defined as:^[1][2][3][4]

$q_p(a) = \frac{a^{p-1}-1}{p}.$

or

$\delta_p(a) = \frac{a - a^p }{p}$.

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 q_p(a) will be an integer. The quotient is named after Pierre de Fermat.

Properties

From the definition, it is obvious that

$q_p(1) \equiv 0 \pmod{p}$

$q_p(-a) \equiv q_p(a) \pmod{p}$, since p − 1 is even.

In 1850 Gotthold Eisenstein proved that if a and b are both coprime to p, then:^[5]

$q_p(ab)\equiv q_p(a)+q_p(b) \pmod{p}$;

$q_p(a^r)\equiv rq_p(a) \pmod{p}$;

$q_p(p-a)\equiv q_p(a) + \frac{1}{a} \pmod{p}$;

$q_p(p+a)\equiv q_p(a) - \frac{1}{a} \pmod{p}$;

$q_p(p-1)\equiv 1 \pmod{p}$;

$q_p(p+1)\equiv -1 \pmod{p}$.

Eisenstein likened the first two of these congruences to properties of logarithms. These properties imply

$q_p(1/a) \equiv -q_p(a) \pmod{p}$;

$q_p(a/b) \equiv q_p(a) - q_p(b) \pmod{p}$.

In 1895 Dmitry Mirimanoff pointed out that an iteration of Eisenstein's rules gives the corollary:^[6]

$q_p(a+np)\equiv q_p(a)-n\cdot\frac{1}{a} \pmod{p}.$

From this, it follows^[7] that

$q_p(a+np^2)\equiv q_p(a) \pmod{p}.$

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 first half of the range {1, p − 1}:

$-2q_p(2) \equiv \sum_{k=1}^{\frac{p-1}{2}} \frac{1}{k} \pmod{p}.$

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:

$-3q_p(2) \equiv \sum_{k=1}^{\lfloor\frac{p}{4}\rfloor} \frac{1}{k} \pmod{p}.$^[8]

$4q_p(2) \equiv \sum_{k=\lfloor\frac{p}{10}\rfloor + 1}^{\lfloor\frac{2p}{10}\rfloor} \frac{1}{k} + \sum_{k=\lfloor\frac{3p}{10}\rfloor + 1}^{\lfloor\frac{4p}{10}\rfloor} \frac{1}{k} \pmod{p}.$^[9]

$2q_p(2) \equiv \sum_{k=\lfloor\frac{p}{6}\rfloor+1}^{\lfloor\frac{p}{3}\rfloor} \frac{1}{k} \pmod{p}.$^[10][11]

Eisenstein's series also has an increasingly complex connection to the Fermat quotients with other bases, the first few examples being:

$-3q_p(3) \equiv 2\sum_{k=1}^{\lfloor\frac{p}{3}\rfloor} \frac{1}{k} \pmod{p}.$^[12]

$-5q_p(5) \equiv 4\sum_{k=1}^{\lfloor\frac{p}{5}\rfloor} \frac{1}{k} + 2\sum_{k=\lfloor\frac{p}{5}\rfloor+1}^{\lfloor\frac{2p}{5}\rfloor} \frac{1}{k} \pmod{p}.$^[13]

Generalized Wieferich primes

If q_p(a) ≡ 0 (mod p) then a^p-1 ≡ 1 (mod p²). Primes for which this is true for a = 2 are called Wieferich primes. In general they are called Wieferich primes base a. Known solutions of q_p(a) ≡ 0 (mod p) for small values of a are:^[2]

a	p (checked up to 5 × 10^13)	OEIS sequence
1	2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, ... (All primes)	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
14	29, 353, 7596952219	A234810
15	29131, 119327070011	A242741
16	1093, 3511
17	2, 3, 46021, 48947, 478225523351	A128668
18	5, 7, 37, 331, 33923, 1284043	A244260
19	3, 7, 13, 43, 137, 63061489	A090968
20	281, 46457, 9377747, 122959073	A242982
21	2
22	13, 673, 1595813, 492366587, 9809862296159
23	13, 2481757, 13703077, 15546404183, 2549536629329	A128669
24	5, 25633
25	2, 20771, 40487, 53471161, 1645333507, 6692367337, 188748146801
26	3, 5, 71, 486999673, 6695256707
27	11, 1006003
28	3, 19, 23
29	2
30	7, 160541, 94727075783

For more information, see,^[14][15][16] and.^[17]

The smallest solutions of q_p(a) ≡ 0 (mod p) with a = n are:

2, 1093, 11, 1093, 2, 66161, 5, 3, 2, 3, 71, 2693, 2, 29, 29131, 1093, 2, 5, 3, 281, 2, 13, 13, 5, 2, 3, 11, 3, 2, 7, 7, 5, 2, 46145917691, 3, 66161, 2, 17, 8039, 11, 2, 23, 5, 3, 2, 3, ... (sequence A039951 in OEIS)

A pair (p,r) of prime numbers such that q_p(r) ≡ 0 (mod p) and q_r(p) ≡ 0 (mod r) is called a Wieferich pair.

References

1. Weisstein, Eric W., "Fermat Quotient", MathWorld.
2. Fermat Quotient 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 definirt werden," Bericht über die zur Bekanntmachung geeigneten Verhandlungen der Königl. Preuß. Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 1850, 36-42
6. Dmitry Mirimanoff, "Sur la congruence (r^{p − 1} − 1):p = qr (mod p)," Journal für 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 r^{p − 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): 350–360, 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
15. Wieferich primes to base 10125
16. Wieferich prime in prime bases up to 1000
17. Wieferich primes with level >= 3

External links

• Gottfried Helms. Fermat-/Euler-quotients (a^p-1 – 1)/p^k with arbitrary k.
• Richard Fischer. Fermat quotients B^(P-1) == 1 (mod P^2).