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Lecture 4 4

The document discusses solving congruences and the Chinese Remainder Theorem. It defines relatively prime numbers and proves theorems about congruences. It also covers linear congruences, modular inverses, and uses the Chinese Remainder Theorem to solve a example problem about dividing items among groups. The Chinese Remainder Theorem states that a unique solution exists to a system of congruences when the moduli are pairwise relatively prime.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
32 views16 pages

Lecture 4 4

The document discusses solving congruences and the Chinese Remainder Theorem. It defines relatively prime numbers and proves theorems about congruences. It also covers linear congruences, modular inverses, and uses the Chinese Remainder Theorem to solve a example problem about dividing items among groups. The Chinese Remainder Theorem states that a unique solution exists to a system of congruences when the moduli are pairwise relatively prime.

Uploaded by

hallertjohn
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Solving Congruences – Rosen Section 4.

Anna-Simone Frank1

MNF130

Spring 2024

1
Slides created by Tom Michoel and modified by Erik Maartensson and
Anna-Simone Frank
Relatively prime

Definition
The greatest common divisor of two integers m and n not both zero,
written gcd(m, n), is the largest integer d such that d | m and d | n.

Definition
Two integers m and n are relatively prime if they have no common
positive divisor other than 1, that is, if gcd(m, n) = 1.

Theorem
For a positive integer m and integers a, b, n; if an ≡ bn (mod m) and
gcd(m, n) = 1, then a ≡ b (mod m).

3
Lemma
If a, b, c are positive integers such that gcd(a, b) = 1 and a | bc, then
a | c.

Proof.
I If gcd(a, b) = 1 then there exist integers s, t such that

sa + tb = 1
sac + tbc = c

I We have a | sac, and by the assumption that a | bc also a | tbc.


I Hence a | (sac + tbc) = c.

4
Theorem
For a positive integer m and integers a, b, n; if an ≡ bn (mod m) and
gcd(m, n) = 1, then a ≡ b (mod m).

Proof.
I If an ≡ bn (mod m), then by definition m | (an − bn) = (a − b)n.
I By the previous lemma, gcd(m, n) = 1 and m | (a − b)n implies that
m | (a − b), and hence a ≡ b (mod m).

5
Linear congruences
A linear congruence is an equation

ax ≡ b (mod m) (1)

in an integer variable x, with a positive integer m and integers a, b.

Example
The linear congruence with 2x ≡ 1 (mod 3) has the solution
x ≡ 2 (mod 3).

b b+m b + 2m b + 3m b + 4m b + 5m b + 6m

0 a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6a 7a 8a 9a 10a

Figure 1: Linear congruence with a = 2, b = 1 and m = 3.

6
Inverse modulo m
Definition
An inverse of an integer a modulo m is an integer ā such that
aā ≡ 1 (mod m).
Theorem
If integers a, m are relatively prime, gcd(a, m) = 1, then there exists a
unique inverse of a modulo m.
Proof.
I If gcd(a, m) = 1, then there exist integers s, t such that
sa + tm = 1, and hence sa + tm ≡ 1 (mod m).
I Because tm ≡ 0 (mod m), it follows that sa ≡ 1 (mod m), and s is
an inverse of a modulo m.
I Assume there exists another inverse r of a modulo m. Because
sa ≡ 1 (mod m), there exists q such that sa = qm + 1. Likewise
there exists p such that ra = pm + 1.
I Hence sa − ra = (s − r )a = (q − p)m and m | (s − r )a.
I Because gcd(a, m) = 1 it follows that m | (s − r ), or s ≡ r
(mod m). That is, s is unique modulo m.
7
Inverses modulo prime numbers

Corollary
For a prime p, all integers a, with a 6≡ 0 (mod p) have a modular inverse.
Another way of putting this is that all numbers a ∈ Zp , a 6= 0 have a
multiplicative inverse!

8
Example
Do 7 and 6 have inverses modulo 8?
I Test all possible values for an inverse:
7 mod 8 = 7 6 mod 8 = 6
2 · 7 mod 8 = 6 2 · 6 mod 8 = 4
3 · 7 mod 8 = 5 3 · 6 mod 8 = 2
4 · 7 mod 8 = 4 4 · 6 mod 8 = 0
5 · 7 mod 8 = 3
6 · 7 mod 8 = 2
7 · 7 mod 8 = 1
8 · 7 mod 8 = 0
I Once we reach 0, the numbers repeat.

Intuition
If gcd(a, m) = 1, all values 0 ≤ r < m, including r = 1, are encountered
in this process, but if gcd(a, m) > 1 the process terminates early and
r = 1 is not encountered.
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How to compute modular inverses?

To compute an inverse of a modulo m:

1. Use the Euclidean algorithm to compute gcd(a, m).


2. If gcd(a, m) = 1, then reverse the steps of the Euclidean algorithm
to write

1 = gcd(a, m) = sa + tm

3. We obtain

ā ≡ s (mod m)

10
Example
We have

8 = 7 + 1 ↔ −1 · 7 = 1 + (−1) · 8.
Thus, -1 and also 7 are inverses of 7 modulo 8. Also, 7−1 = 7 in Z8 .

Example
Let us find the inverse of 101 modulo 4620 (example 2 in Section 4.4.2).
By applying the extended Euclidean algorithm we find that

1 = −35 · 4620 + 1601 · 101 ↔ 1601 · 101 = 1 + 35 · 4620.


Thus 1601 is an inverse of 101 modulo 4620. Also, 101−1 = 1601 in
Z4620 .

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Theorem
If a has an inverse ā modulo m, then the solutions to the linear
congruence ax ≡ b (mod m) are all integers x such that x ≡ āb
(mod m).

Proof.
I Let x be a solution to ax ≡ b (mod m). Then

āb mod m = (ā mod m)(b mod m) mod m


= (ā mod m)(ax mod m) mod m
= āax mod m
= (āa mod m)(x mod m) mod m
= (x mod m) mod m
= x mod m

or x ≡ āb (mod m)

12
The Chinese remainder theorem

The Chinese remainder theorem states that when the moduli of a


system of linear congruences are pairwise relatively prime, then there is a
unique solution of the system modulo the product of the moduli.

It is named after the Chinese heritage of problems involving systems of


linear congruences.

Example (Sun-Tsu, 1st century)


There are certain things whose number is unknown. When divided by 3,
the remainder is 2; when divided by 5, the remainder is 3; and when
divided by 7, the remainder is 2. What will be the number of things?

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The Chinese remainder theorem
er Theory and Cryptography

EM 2 THE CHINESE REMAINDER THEOREM Let m1 , m2 , . . . , mn be pairwise relatively


prime positive integers greater than one and a1 , a2 , . . . , an arbitrary integers. Then the system

x ≡ a1 (mod m1 ),
x ≡ a2 (mod m2 ),
·
·
·
x ≡ an (mod mn )

has a unique solution modulo m = m1 m2 · · · mn . (That is, there is a solution x with


0 ≤ x < m, and all other solutions are congruent modulo m to this solution.)

Proof: To establish this theorem, we need to show that a solution exists and that it is unique
modulo m. We will show that a solution exists by describing a way to construct this solution;
showing that the solution is unique modulo m is Exercise 30.
To construct a simultaneous solution, first let

Mk = m/mk 14
Constructive proof.
Introduce the notation Mk = m/mk . By construction gcd(Mk , mk ) = 1.
Thus there are integers yk such that

Mk yk ≡ 1 (mod mk ). (2)
Now, consider

x = a1 M1 y1 + · · · + an Mn yn . (3)
For all mk we get

x ≡ a1 M1 y1 + · · · + an Mn yn ≡ ak Mk yk ≡ ak (mod mk ) (4)
Thus x is a solution to the system of linear congruences!
The proof that x is unique modulo m is exercise 4.4.30 in the course
book.

15
The Sun-Tsu example

x ≡2 (mod 3)
x ≡3 (mod 5)
x ≡2 (mod 7)

We have m = 3 · 5 · 7 = 105, M1 = m/3 = 5 · 7 = 35,


M2 = m/5 = 3 · 7 = 21 and M3 = m/7 = 3 · 5 = 15. Next, the modular
inverses

35y1 ≡ 1 (mod 3)
21y2 ≡ 1 (mod 5)
15y3 ≡ 1 (mod 7)

are y1 ≡ 2 (mod 3), y2 ≡ 1 (mod 5), y3 ≡ 1 (mod 7). Thus, the final
solution is (the solution can easily be verified!)

x = 2 · 35 · 2 + 3 · 21 · 1 + 2 · 15 · 1 = 233 ≡ 23 (mod 105). (5)


16
Applications of the Chinese remainder theorem

Consider the task of evaluating

f (x) mod m, (6)


where m = m1 · · · mn , and all these factors are pairwise relatively prime.
The Chinese remainder theorem says that we can calculate
f (x) mod m1 , . . . , f (x) mod mn and use the results to compute
f (x) mod m.
This is for example used in RSA to speed up the algorithm!

17

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