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Artins Conjecture

The document discusses Gauss's conjecture that there are infinitely many primes for which 10 is a primitive root modulo that prime. It provides background on primitive roots and explains Gauss's reasoning for why 10 would be a primitive root modulo primes of the form 4n+1, where n is prime. The document also discusses Artin's more general conjecture from 1927 that for any non-zero integer α not equal to ±1 or a perfect square, there are infinitely many primes for which α is a primitive root modulo that prime. It outlines some partial proofs of Artin's conjecture.

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Mariam Zaarour
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71 views4 pages

Artins Conjecture

The document discusses Gauss's conjecture that there are infinitely many primes for which 10 is a primitive root modulo that prime. It provides background on primitive roots and explains Gauss's reasoning for why 10 would be a primitive root modulo primes of the form 4n+1, where n is prime. The document also discusses Artin's more general conjecture from 1927 that for any non-zero integer α not equal to ±1 or a perfect square, there are infinitely many primes for which α is a primitive root modulo that prime. It outlines some partial proofs of Artin's conjecture.

Uploaded by

Mariam Zaarour
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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One of the most famous open conjectures in number theory is Artin’s conjec-

ture which states that the integer  is a primitive root of infinitely many primes
if  6= ±1 (mod ) and  is not a perfect square.
Gauss considered that the expansion of the decimals of the form 1 is periodic
for  6= 2 and  6= 5 The period is the smallest positive integer  such that
10 ≡ 1 (mod ), in other words  is the order of 10 modulo  For example,
the decimal expansion for 17 = 0142857142857 this shows that 10 is a primitive
root modulo 7 Gauss gives a table that contains such examples and he have
asked whether there are infinitely many such primes, that is, primes  for which
the decimal period is  − 1.
Let  be a prime where  6= 2 5 and let
1
= 1 2  

be the decimal expansion with period  Then
³ µ ¶
1 1 2  ´ 1 1
= + 2 +  +  1 +  + 2 + 
 10 10 10 10 10

=
10 − 1

where  is some integer. Therefore, 10 − 1 =   and hence

10 ≡ 1 (mod )

where  is the least positive integer satisfying the above congruence and  is
called the order of order of 10 modulo  By Fermat little theorem,

10−1 ≡ 1 (mod )

thus 0‹ ≤  − 1 since by the Lagrange theorem  |  − 1 so the largest period


of 1 is when 10 has order  − 1 modulo  and in this case 10 is a primitive root.
More general, if ( ) = 1 and  is the smallest integer such that

 ≡ 1 (mod )

is  − 1 then  is a primitive root modulo  If  is the product of distinct


primes   the period of 1 in base  is the least common multiple of the orders
of  modulo  where ( ) = 1 For example, if  = 99007599 = (9851) (9949)
where these 2 numbers are primes and 2 is a primitive root for both of them
1
and the period of 99007599 in base 2 is

[9851 9949] = 48993900


1
Therefore, the binary expansion of 99007599 has a period 48993900 Gauss asked
how 10 is a primitive root modulo  as  varies over the primes but he did not
made a conjecture. A conjecture was formulated by E. Artin in 1927 during a

1
conservation with H. Hasse. He stated that for any non zero integer  other
than −1 1 or a perfect square there exist infinitely many primes  for which 
is a priitive root modulo  Moreover, if  () is the number of such primes up
to , he conjectured an asymptotic formula of the form

 () ∼  ()
log 

as  → ∞ where  () is a constant depending on  This now known as Artin’s


conjecture. His conjecture is one celebrated instance of his mathematical cre-
ativity. If is important of different areas of mathematics such as group theory,
algebraic and analytic number theory, and algebraic geometry.
If  is primitive root modulo , then it is sufficient that
−1
  6≡ 1 (mod )

for every prime divisor  of  − 1 If  is the order of  mod  then  |  − 1 and


if  6=  − 1 then  ( − 1) |  for some prime divisor  of  − 1 Heuristically, 
is a primitive root modulo  if

 ≡ 1 (mod ) (1)
−1
  ≡ 1 (mod )

is not satisfied. So, fix  and find the probability that a prime  satisfies the
following conditions. Using Diriclet theorem,  ≡ 1 (mod ) is true for prime 
1
with −1 
−1
  ≡ 1 (mod )
occur with probability 1  The probability that both occurs is (−1)
1
since they
are independent. To make sure that  is a primitive root modulo  equation 1
must not be satisfied for every  Thus, the probability is
Yµ 1

1−

 ( − 1)

for such primes.


In 1967 Hooley proved that Artin’s conjecture and an asymptotic formula
for  () subject to the assumption of the generalized Riemann hypothesis.
This hypothesis still proved is the natural extension of the classical Riemann
hypothesis to the Dedekind zeta function of a number field. The implication
of Hooley’s theorem is that if Artin’s conjecture is false then the generalized
Riemann hypothesis is false.
In 1983, Rajiv Gupta proved that there is a set of 13 numbers for at least
one of these 13 numbers, Artin’s conjecture is true. Thus, there exist some  for
which Artin’s conjecture is true. Moreover, this proof shows that the conjecture
was also true for almost all  Gupta, kumar Murty reduced the size of the set
to 7 In 1985 Heath Brown refined this result to obtain to obtain a set of three

2
numbers, by applying the "Chen -Iwaniec switching". ( The first switch was in
the study of primes of the form  ( ) +  where  is a quadratic form. It was
also discovered by Chen in his quasi, resolution of the twin prime problem and
Goldbach conjecture). From the consequence of the Heath Brown refinement is

Theorem 1 One of 2, 3, 5 is a primitive root modulo  for infinitely many


primes 
In order that  be a primitive root for a prime  not dividing  it is sufficient
that for each prime 
 ≡ 1 (mod ) (2)
Then −1
  6≡ 1 (mod ) (3)
Several nineteenth century using this criterion observed that 2 is a primitive root
modulo  whenever  is of the form 4 + 1 where  is prime. Thus,  − 1 has
only two prime divisors that are 2 and  Since  is odd

 = 4 + 1 ≡ 5 (mod 8)

and −1
2 2 ≡ −1 (mod )
by quadratic reciprocity law. Also,
−1
2  = 24 ≡ 1 (mod )

implies that  = 3 or 5 and neither of these primes is of the form 4 + 1


Therefore, equations 2 and 3 are satisfied and 2 is a primitive root modulo  It
is an unsolved problem to determine whether there are infinitely many primes
of the form −1
4  By

It is the order of the subgroup generated by 10 in (ZZ)+ which is the


multiplicative subgroup of residue classes modulo  By Lagrange’s theorem the
order of a subgroup of a finite group divides the order of the group. Since the
+
order of (ZZ) is  − 1 thus 10 10
  − 1 If  =  − 1 then 10 is a primitive
root modulo  If  = 4 + 1 is prime with  prime such that  ≡ 2 (mod 5) 
then 10 is a primitive root modulo  By the quadratic reciprocity law
µ ¶ µ ¶µ ¶ ³´ µ ¶
2 10 2 5  2 −1 4
10 ≡ = = (−1) 8
=− ≡ −1 (mod )
   5 5

3
and also we used that  ≡ 4 (mod 5) and  ≡ 5 (mod 8) 
Define the logarithm integral  () ∼ log   the prime number theorem
P
suggests that the probability that a number is prime is log1  then 1
log 
2≤≤
primes ≤  and approximately equal to  ()  Then for  and 4 + 1 to be
prime and  ≡ 2 (mod 5) the probability is 5 log1 2  assuming that these three
are independent. Because they are not, we correct by some positive constant ,
hence there are at least log2  primes  such that 10 is a primitive root modulo
 Thus it is expected that there are infinitely many primes  having 10 as a
primitive root modulo . This is Gauss conjecture.

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