If p Is Prime And (a2 ≡ a mod pk), Then (a ≡ 0) Or (a ≡ 1)

If \(a^2 ≡ a mod p^k\), then \(p^k\) divides their difference:

$$\begin{gather} p^k|a^2 - a \\ p^k|a(a - 1) \end{gather} $$

If \(p^k\) divides both \(a\) and \(a-1\), then it should divide their difference:

$$\begin{gather} a - (a-1) \\ 1 \end{gather}$$

This means \(p^k|1\), which implies \(p=1\), so \(p\) can't divide both. This means \(p^k\) divides only one of them (either \(p^k|a\) or \(p^k|a-1\)).

If \(p^k|a\), then \(a ≡ 0 \bmod p^k\). If \(p^k|a-1\), then \(a ≡ 1 \bmod p^k\).

Styles

(uses cookies)