Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2006/c/2/solution

A primitive root modulo is an integer whose residue generates the multiplicative group , equivalently has order .
The Chinese remainder theorem states that, for pairwise coprime positive integers , the system has a unique solution modulo . For a constructive proof put . Bézout's identity gives an integer with . Then has all the required residues. If two solutions exist, their difference is divisible by every ; pairwise coprimality makes it divisible by their product, proving uniqueness modulo .
Here divide , and none is zero modulo . Choose a primitive root and exponents with
Use the theorem with moduli to choose such that , , . Define nonzero residues
The exponents are integers; negative ones are interpreted using inverses in . Taking integer representatives now gives
The theorem aligns the exponent modular congruences, which is why a primitive root converts the three power conditions into a linear modular congruence problem.

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