Notes on Quadratic Residues

Definition. Let p be an odd prime, n be an integer with p | n . If congruence

x 2  n (mod p) has a solution we say that n is a quadratic residue mod p.
Otherwise, we say that n is a quadratic nonresidue mod p.

Theorem. Let p be an odd prime. Then every reduced residue system mod p contains
exactly ( p  1) / 2 quadratic residues and exactly ( p  1) / 2 quadratic
nonresidues mod p. The quadratic residues belong to the residue classes
containing the numbers
p 1 2
12 , 2 2 ,, ( ) .
2

Legendre’s symbol and its properties

n
Definition. Let p be an odd prime. We define Legendre’s symbol   as follows:
 p
n
If n is quadratic residue mod p,    1 .
 p
n
If n is quadratic nonresidue mod p,    1 .
 p
n
If n  0 (mod p) ,    0 .
 p

n
Remark: Some authors write (n | p) instead of   .
 p

1
    1 for any odd prime p.
 p

a b
      if a  b (mod p ).
 p  p

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 (Euler Criterion) Let p be odd prime. Then for all n we have

n
p1
   n 2
(mod p) .
 p

p 1
 1   1, p  1 (mod 4)
In particular, we have    (1) 2

 p   1, p  3 (mod 4)

n
 Legendre’s symbol   is a completely multiplicative function of n. That
 p
means for any integers a, b we have
 ab   a   b 
        .
 p   p  p

 For every odd prime p, we have

p 2 1
2   1, p  1 (mod 8)
   (1) 8

 p   1, p  3 (mod 8)

 (Quadratic reciprocity law) If p and q are distinct odd primes, then

 p  q 
    
 q   p
except when p  q  3 (mod 4) , in which case
 p q
    
q  p

( p 1)( q 1)
 p  q 
Equivalently,       (1) 4
for all distinct odd primes p and q.
 q   p

Example: Is 83 a quadratic residue mod 103?

2
 83   103   20   2 5 5  83   3
Solution:                        1 .
 103   83   83   83   83   83  5 5

So 83 is a quadratic residue mod 103.

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Jacobi symbol and its properties

r
Definition. If P is a positive odd integer with prime factorization P   piai . The
i 1

n
Jacobi symbol   is defined for all integers n by the equation
P
ai
n r
 n 
      ,
 P  i 1  pi 

 n 
where   is the Legendre symbol.
 pi 

n
We also define    1 .
1

n
 If the congruence x 2  n (mod P) has a solution, we have    1 . However,
P
n
the converse is not true since   can be 1 if an even number of factors –1
P
appears.

 If P and Q are odd positive integers, we have

 mn   m   n 
1.      
 P   P P
 n  n n
2.        
 PQ   P   Q 
m  n 
3.      whenever m  n (mod P)
 P P

 a2n   n 
4.      whenever (a, P)  1
 P  P

 If P is an odd positive integer we have

P 1 P 2 1
 1 2
   (1) 2
and    (1) 8

 P P

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 (Reciprocity law for Jacobi symbol) If P and Q are positive odd integers with
( P, Q)  1, then
 P Q
    
Q  P
except when P  Q  3 (mod 4) , in which case
P Q
    
Q P

( P 1)( Q 1)
 P Q
Equivalently,       (1) 4
.
Q  P

P
Remark: for integer P and positive odd integer Q, ( P, Q)  1     0 .
Q

Application to Diophantine equations

Theorem. The Diophantine equation

y 2  x3  k
has no solution if k has the form
k  (4n  1) 3  4m 2 ,
where m and n are integers such that no prime p  1 (mod 4) divides m.

Proof. Assume there is a solution ( x, y) , we want to obtain a contradiction.

Substitute the expression of k into the equation,
y 2  x 3  (4n  1) 3  4m 2 .
So y 2  x 3  1 (mod 4) and follows that x  1 (mod 4) .
On the other hand, denote a  4n  1 (note that a  1 (mod 4) ), and rewrite
the equation into
y 2  4m 2  x 3  a 3  ( x  a)( x 2  ax  a 2 ) .
Note that x 2  ax  a 2  (1) 2  (1)(1)  (1) 2  1 (mod 4) . Therefore some
prime p  1 (mod 4) divides x 2  ax  a 2 , and
y 2  4m 2  0 (mod p) .

  4m 2   1
However,       1 because p  1 (mod 4 ), a contradiction.
 p   p

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