Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/1/a/i/solution

The multiplicative group is a cyclic group of order , so choose a primitive root . Every nonzero residue is uniquely , with taken modulo . The condition becomes . Writing , its solutions are . Zero is not a solution. Therefore the number is
This includes . The cyclic group argument gives the exact count, whereas the bound of roots for a nonzero degree- polynomial over a field would only give an upper bound.

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