Solve $x^2 \equiv 1 \pmod{30}$ and generalize.

Question

This was one of the questions in a Olympiad number theory course. I used brute force with the CRT: x is odd, not divisible by 3 and its square leaves remainder 1 mod 5 (therefore $x \equiv \pm 1 \pmod 5$). So $x \equiv \pm 1 \pmod{30}$ or $x \equiv \pm 11 \pmod{30}$ . As it can be noted, this is extremely specific and, therefore, a little bit ugly.

How do I generalize this problem for an arbitrary $n$? For example, taking $n = 24$, we have that $5^2 \equiv 1 \pmod n$. So there must be a nontrivial pattern. How do I generalize it?

$x^2 \equiv 1 \mod 24; (x -1)(x+1)\equiv 24$ so $(x-1)(x+1) \equiv 0\mod 3,8$ So $x\equiv \pm 1\mod 3$ and $x \equiv \pm 1; \pm 3 \mod 8$. So 8 answers $x \equiv 1\mod 3\equiv 1\mod 8\equiv 1\mod 24$ or $x\equiv 1\mod 3\equiv -1\mod 8\equiv 7\mod 24$ or $x\equiv 1\mod 3\equiv 3\mod 8\equiv 19\mod 24$ or $x\equiv 1\mod 3\equiv -3\mod 8\equiv 13\mod 24$ and the four negatives of those. — fleablood, Mar 28 '18 at 19:00

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 28 '18 at 17:51

3

HINT: write $$(x-1)(x+1)\equiv 0 \mod 30$$

answered Mar 28 '18 at 17:51

Dr. Sonnhard Graubner

97,058

I wrote it like this before and, since $\mathrm{gcd}(x-1, x+1)$ = 2, I concluded that $\frac{x-1}{2} \cdot \frac{x+1}{2} = 15y’$, where the factors on the LHS are coprime, but I couldn’t advance. – Lucas Henrique Mar 28 '18 at 17:55
$\gcd(x-1,x+1) = 2$ what if $x$ is even? Anyway $(x-1)(x+1) \equiv 0$ means $(x-1)(x+1)= k*30$. What are the divisors of $30$? If the divisors are coprime you can find them that are $2$ apart. – fleablood Mar 28 '18 at 18:12
If $x$ is even then both $x-1, x+1$ are odd and then $(x+1)(x-1) = 2(15k)$ is odd. Absurd. – Lucas Henrique Mar 28 '18 at 18:35
Oh, can't argue with that..... – fleablood Mar 28 '18 at 18:51
I didn’t advance at all. Could you help me? – Lucas Henrique Mar 28 '18 at 21:55

fleablood · Answer 2 · 2018-03-28T18:51:43.223

Well $x^2 \equiv 1 \mod 30$ so $x^2-1 = (x+1)(x-1) \equiv 0 \mod 30$.

Now the trivial factors of $0$ are $0$ and anything else so $x \pm 1$ will do (and will do for any modulus).

Non trivial are $2k, 15$, $3k,10j$ and $5k,6j$. Now we need two that are different by $2$. As each pair is relatively prime that can be done.

$2k - 15j = \pm 2$ however requires $j$ to be even which is equivalent to $0$ and is a trivial solution.

$3k - 10j = \pm 2$ is soulbe but $3*6 - 10*2 = -2$ so $(x-1)=18; (x+1) = 20; x = 19$ will do and $19^2= 18*20 + 1\equiv 6*2*30 + 1 \mod 30$.

For $5k - 6j =\pm 2$ there is $k=2; j = 2$and $x-1=10; x+1=12$ or $x = 11$ will do and $11^2 = 121 \equiv 1 \mod 30$.

So the solutions are $1,31,19, 11$ or $\pm 1; \pm 11$.

===

In hind sight is probably easier to use that Chinese remainder theorem.

$x^2 \equiv 1\mod 30 \implies x^2 \equiv 1 \mod 2,3,5$

So $(x-1)(x+1) \equiv 0 \mod 2,3,5$. As $2,3,5$ are prime the only solutions are $1$ and $-1\mod 2,3,5$.

If $x \equiv \pm1 \mod 2;x \equiv 1 \mod 3; x\equiv 1 \mod 5 \implies x \equiv 1 \mod 30$ is a solution.

$x \equiv \pm1\mod 2; x\equiv 1 \mod 3; x \equiv -1 \mod 5 \implies x \equiv 19 \mod 30$.

$x \equiv \pm1\mod 2; x\equiv -1 \mod 3; x \equiv 1 \mod 5 \implies x \equiv 11 \mod 30$.

$x \equiv \pm 1\mod 2; x\equiv -1 \mod 3; x\equiv -1\mod 5 \implies x\equiv 29 \mod 30$.

So those are the $4$ answers.

That can be generalized to any square free composite numbers.

====

Putting it all together:

If $n$ is prime then $x^2 \equiv 1 \mod n\implies (x + 1)(x-1)\equiv 0 \mod n$ and for prime $n$ the only solutions are $x \equiv \pm n$.

If $n = p^k$ then $(x-1)(x+1)\equiv 0 \mod p$ so if $x \not \equiv \pm 1$ then $x+1, x-1$ are both powers of $p$. This is only possible if $p = 2$. Only one of $x \pm 1$ is divisible by $2$ so $x\pm 1 \equiv 2$ and $x \mp 1 \equiv 2^{k-1}$. And $2^{k-1} -2 = 2$ so $k = 3$. And $x \equiv 3$.

So if $x^2 \equiv 1 \mod 2^3$ then $x\equiv \pm 1; \pm 3$

Other wise if $x^2 \equiv 1 \mod p^k$ then $x \equiv \pm 1\mod p^k$.

Finally if $x^2 \equiv 1 \mod n =\prod p_i^{a_i}$ then by CRT

$x \equiv \pm 1\mod p_i^{a_i}$ (or $\pm 3 \mod 8$). And by CRT there will a a unique solution to all of the combinations.

So if $x^2 \equiv 1 \mod 360 = 8*9*5$ then

$x \equiv \pm 1, \pm 3 \mod 8; x\equiv \pm 1 \mod 9; x \equiv \pm 1 \mod 5$.

So there are 16 solutions.

Upvoted. But there is a problem: how do we count how many solutions are there? — Lucas Henrique, Mar 29 '18 at 04:01
If $n=2^k\prod_{i=1}^m p_i^{a_i}$ is the unique prime factor of $n$ then $x =\equiv \pm 1 \mod p_i^{a_i}$ are $2^m$ systems of equations. Each system has a unique solution. If $k=1$ then $x\equiv 1\mod 2$ is a single equation and there are $2^m$ solutions. If $k=3$ then $x\equiv \pm 1,\pm 3 \mod 8$ our four equations and there are $42^m$ solutions. Otherwise $x\equiv \pm 1\mod 2^k$ is two equations and there are $22^m$ solutions. So there are $2^i*2^m$ solutions where $m$ is the number of odd primes. $i=2,10$ depending on if the highest power of $2$ dividing $n$ is 3, not 3, or 1 or 0. — fleablood, Mar 29 '18 at 17:21

Jim Haddocc · Answer 3 · 2018-03-28T18:29:38.923

0

Note: This method works only for primes $n$

Let $0<a<b<n$ such that $a^2 \equiv b^2 (\mod n)$. Then, we have $(b-a)(a+b)\equiv 0 \mod 30$. Since $a<b<n$ and $n$ is a prime, $b-a$ cannot divide $n$. Thus we must have $$(a+b)\equiv 0 \mod 30\Rightarrow a \equiv -b \mod n$$

This means $b=n-a$. Thus we can conclude that only $a^2$ and $(n-a)^2$ can have the same remainder when divided by $n$.

edited Mar 28 '18 at 18:29

answered Mar 28 '18 at 17:53

Jim Haddocc

2,483

$b-a$ is not necessarily coprime to $n$ so your argument fails. – Lucas Henrique Mar 28 '18 at 18:02
I had this in mind, too. But it didn’t go so well... – Lucas Henrique Mar 28 '18 at 18:02
1

@LucasHenrique Ah yes, this method works only for primes... – Jim Haddocc Mar 28 '18 at 18:05
$11^2 = 4*30 + 1$. $19^2 \equiv 1 \mod 30$> – fleablood Mar 28 '18 at 18:13
@fleablood This is only for prime $n$ – Jim Haddocc Mar 28 '18 at 18:14
Since when has $30$ been prime? You said, and I quote, "Coming to you case, we have $x=30k±1$ as the only solution to $x^2≡1\mod30$". That is simply not true. Because $30$ is not prime – fleablood Mar 28 '18 at 18:29
@fleablood whoops sorry, I had forgotten to remove that part while editing. Apologies – Jim Haddocc Mar 28 '18 at 18:30

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 28 '18 at 19:10

It is: $$x^2=30n+1.$$ Obviously, $x=2k+1$.Then: $$2k(k+1)=15n=15\cdot 2m \Rightarrow k(k+1)=15m.$$ There are $4$ cases: $$1) \ k=3p, k+1=5q \Rightarrow 5q-3p=1 \Rightarrow (p,q)=(-2+5t,-1-3t) \Rightarrow x=2k+1=6p+1=30t-11.$$ $$2) \ k=5r, k+1=3s \Rightarrow 3s-5r=1 \Rightarrow (r,s)=(1+3t,2+5t) \Rightarrow x=2k+1=10r+1=30t+11.$$ $$3) \ k=15t \Rightarrow x=2k+1=30t+1.$$ $$4) \ k+1=15t \Rightarrow x=2k+1=30t-1.$$ Hence, the solutions are: $$x=30n\pm 1; 30n\pm 11.$$

Solve $x^2 \equiv 1 \pmod{30}$ and generalize.

4 Answers4