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2.1. Congruence and Congruence Classes

Some motivation
Example 1. Is it possible to take 6 times a square integer, subtract 1, and obtain 2 times another square
integer?

Example 2. Is it possible to add 1 to a square integer and obtain 3 times another square integer?

We’ll soon see how to answer both of these questions using the theory of congruences.

Congruence modulo n
Definition 3. Let a, b, n ∈ Z, with n > 0. We say that a is congruent to b modulo n, and write
a ≡ b (mod n),
if n | (a − b).
Example 4. Determine whether the following statements are true or false:
(a) 17 ≡ 5 (mod 6)

(b) 26 ≡ −13 (mod 11)

(c) If a is an integer then 30a2 − a + 3 ≡ 4a + 18 (mod 5)

(d) If c, d are positive integers then c3 + d3 ≡ (c + d)3 (mod cd)

WARNING! The expression

a≡b
means nothing without a modulus n. For instance, the expression 14 ≡ 72 is meaningless without any other
context.
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Theorem 5. Fix a positive integer n. Then the relation of congruence modulo n is an “equivalence relation”
on the set of integers. That is, for any a, b, c ∈ Z, the following three properties hold:

(a) Property: a ≡ a (mod n).

(b) Property: If a ≡ b (mod n), then b ≡ a (mod n).

(c) Property: If a ≡ b (mod n) and b ≡ c (mod n), then a ≡ c (mod n).

Theorem 6. If a ≡ b (mod n) and c ≡ d (mod n), then the following hold:
(a) a + c ≡ b + d (mod n)
(b) ac ≡ bd (mod n)
Example 1 (again).

Example 2 (again).
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Congruence classes
Definition 7. Let a, n ∈ Z, with n > 0. The congruence class of a modulo n is

[a]n = [a] = b ∈ Z b ≡ a (mod n) ,
i.e., the set of all integers that are congruent to a modulo n.
Remark 8. When we want to be more precise, we will use the notation [a]n . If n is clear from context, we
will just write [a]. (The notation [a] is more commonly used in the textbook.)
Notice that
b ≡ a (mod n) ⇐⇒ n | (b − a)
⇐⇒ b − a = nk for some k ∈ Z
⇐⇒ b = a + nk for some k ∈ Z

Thus we can also write

[a] = {a + nk | k ∈ Z} = {. . . , a − 2n, a − n, a, a + n, a + 2n, . . .}
Example 9.
(a) [−3]7 =

(b) [−3]4 =

(c) [9]4 =

Theorem 10. Fix an integer n > 0. For any two integers a, c ∈ Z, we have
(a)

(b) If a 6≡ c (mod n), then [a]n and [c]n are disjoint sets.
In particular, any two congruence classes modulo n are either disjoint or identical.
Corollary 11. Fix an integer n > 0.
(a) Let a ∈ Z and suppose r is the remainder when a is divided by n. Then [a]n = [r]n .
(b) There are exactly n distinct congruence classes modulo n, namely
[0], [1], [2], . . . , [n − 2], [n − 1].
Example 12. Modulo 4 we have
[0] = {. . . , −8, −4, 0, 4, 8, . . .}
[1] = {. . . , −7, −3, 1, 5, 9, . . .}
[2] = {. . . , −6, −2, 2, 6, 10, . . .}
[3] = {. . . , −5, −1, 3, 7, 11, . . .}
Definition 13. The set of all congruence classes modulo n is denoted by Zn .
Remark 14. Instead of using the notation Zn , it’s also common to use the notation Z/nZ. But we won’t
use this in our class.
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Some problems
(1) Decide whether the following statements are true or false:
(a) 2 ∈ [5]10
(b) [10]5 ∈ Z5

(2) (a) Suppose that (a, n) = 1. If ab ≡ ac (mod n), prove that b ≡ c (mod n).
(b) Translate the result in part (a) into a statement about congruence classes in Zn .

(3) If [a] = [1] in Zn , prove that (a, n) = 1. Show that the converse may be false.
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2.2. Modular Arithmetic

In this section, we learn a way to add and multiply elements of Zn . This sounds strange, because the
elements of Zn are sets! But if we work carefully, we’ll end up with a convincing setup that really makes us
“feel like” we’re doing a form of addition and multiplication, one that is akin to the “usual” addition and
multiplication for, say, real numbers.
Definition 1. Let C1 , C2 ∈ Zn be two congruence classes modulo n. We define their sum C1 ⊕ C2 and their
product C1 C2 to be the following elements of Zn :
If C1 = [a] and C2 = [c], then C1 ⊕ C2 := [a + c] and C1 C2 := [ac].
An important point that is emphasized in the reading is to show that the operations ⊕ and on Zn are
well-defined, meaning that they are

Example 2. Two students are adding the same two congruence classes C1 and C2 in Z7 .
• Student A chooses to write them as C1 = [3] and C2 = [6].
• Student B chooses to write them as C1 = [−4] and C2 = [20].
When they use Definition 1 to calculate C1 ⊕ C2 , do they get the same answer?

Remark 3. More succinctly, the definition of addition and multiplication on Zn can we written as
[a] ⊕ [c] := [a + c], [a] [c] := [ac].

Example 4. Fill in the following addition and multiplication tables for Z3 = { [0], [1], [2] }
⊕ [0] [1] [2] [0] [1] [2]
[0] [0]
[1] [1]
[2] [2]

The following exponent notation also makes sense in Zn :

[a]k := [a] [a] ··· k
| · a ·{z· · · · a}] = [a ],
[a] = [a
| {z }
k times k times
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Properties of modular arithmetic

The following theorem tells us that our definitions of addition and multiplication on Zn have many of the
same properties of, say, addition and multiplication on Z or R.
Theorem 5. For any [a], [b], [c] ∈ Zn , the following hold:
(1) Closure under addition
The class [a] ⊕ [b] belongs to Zn
(2) Addition is associative



[a] ⊕ [b] ⊕ [c] = [a] ⊕ [b] ⊕ [c]

(3) Addition is commutative

[a] ⊕ [b] = [b] ⊕ [a]
(4) Existence of additive identity element
[a] ⊕ [0] = [a] = [0] ⊕ [a]
(5) Existence of additive inverses
For each [a] ∈ Zn , the equation [a] ⊕ X = [0] has a solution X in Zn .
(6) Closure under multiplication
The class [a] [b] belongs to Zn
(7) Multiplication is associative



[a] [b] [c] = [a] [b] [c]
(8) Distributive property




[a] [b] ⊕ [c] = [a] [b] ⊕ [a] [c]
(9) Multiplication is commutative
[a] [b] = [b] [a]
(10) Existence of multiplicative identity
[a] [1] = [a] = [1] [a]

Some problems
(1) Find all solutions in Z5 to the cubic equation
X 3 ⊕ [7] X ⊕ [−7] = [0].
Note. We following the usual order of operations from high school algebra. So in this problem we
compute X 3 and [7] X first and then perform the addition.

(2) Prove or disprove: If [a] [b] = [0] in Zn , then [a] = [0] or [b] = [0].

(3) Solve the equation X 2 ⊕ [3] X ⊕ [2] = [0] in Z6 .

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2.3. The structure of Zp (p prime) and Zn

Notation for Zn
We’ve been writing things like
[7]9 ⊕ [5]9 = [3]9 and [3]9 [3]9 = [0]9 and [17]9 = [35]9 in Z9 .
But often we’ll be lazy and write these as
7+5=3 and 3·3=0 and 17 = 35 in Z9 .
When should you use the precise notation?

When is it okay to use the “lazy” (i.e., bracket-less) notation?

Units and zero divisors

Here are two kinds of special elements in Zn (described using the lazy notation):
Definition 1. Let n > 1 and fix an element a ∈ Zn .
(a) The element a is called a unit if the equation
aX = 1
has a solution X in Zn . (In this case, the solution is called the inverse of a.)
(b) The element a ∈ Zn is called a zero divisor if a is nonzero and the equation
aX = 0
has a nonzero solution X in Zn .
Why do we care about units?

Why do we care about zero divisors?

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Here’s one of the two main theorems from this section (which must be stated using the precise notation):
Theorem 2. Let a, n be integers, with n > 1. The element [a] ∈ Zn is a unit if and only if (a, n) = 1.

The following is the other main theorem, which is just a rephrasing of Theorem 2.8 from the book using
the terminology in Definition 1 above:
Theorem 3. Fix an integer n > 1. The following are equivalent:
(a) The integer n is prime.
(b) Every nonzero a ∈ Zn is a unit.
(c) There are no zero divisors in Zn .
Thus if n is prime then Zn behaves a lot like the number systems Q, R, and C. (Usually we write p for a
prime and talk about Zp , as in the title of the section.) On the other hand, if n is composite then arithmetic
in Zn is not as “nice”, in the sense that you will have strange things like zero divisors and some nonzero
elements won’t be units.

Some problems
(1) (a) If a is a unit in Zn , prove that a is not a zero divisor.
(b) If a is a zero divisor in Zn , prove that a is not a unit.
Hint. What is the contrapositive of this statement?

(2) What are the units in Z9 ? What are the zero divisors?

(3) If a is a unit and b is a zero divisor in Zn , show that ab is a zero divisor.