Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-analytic-number-theory-and-elliptic-curves-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/b/4/c/solution

In the elliptic curve method, addition is attempted modulo the composite number. A denominator that is not a unit in a ring supplies a factor through its greatest common divisor with that number.
First double using the elliptic-curve addition formula. Its tangent slope is
These calculations are valid modulo since the only initial denominator is two, which is invertible. Thus , equivalently modulo .
To form , the chord slope would require
The denominator has
It cannot be inverted, and thirteen is the requested proper factor. The failure has a geometric explanation: modulo thirteen, , so is the point at infinity. Modulo seventeen that chord denominator remains nonzero. The differing behavior at the two primes is exactly what the elliptic curve method detects.

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