Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/ii/paper-3/1g/solution

An Euler pseudoprime is an odd composite number with satisfying , where the right side is the Jacobi symbol. A weaker convention requires only ; it is distinguished below. A strong pseudoprime, with and odd, satisfies or for some .
By the Chinese remainder theorem for unit groups, the unit group modulo is . Modulo , . Thus the only possible sign in is positive. Modulo , writing for a primitive root, the condition is , equivalently . Consequently has multiplicative order dividing in each factor. Its square is either or in each factor, but these signs must agree: modulo , the Legendre symbol is for square and for square , and the same is true modulo . The Euler pseudoprime condition additionally requires the product of those Legendre symbols to be . Hence
Each sign has two roots modulo each prime, hence four roots modulo . There are eight pseudoprime bases modulo under the Jacobi symbol convention. Under the weaker sign-only convention there are instead sixteen pseudoprime bases, since the two signs of the squares need not agree; the stated equivalence therefore specifically uses the Jacobi symbol convention.
For the strong pseudoprime condition, . Since the unit group has exponent of a finite group , the only possibilities are or . The six pseudoprime bases are . For example , while has but . Thus the strong-pseudoprime pseudoprime bases are not a subgroup.

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