If are nonzero integers, , and is one solution of the linear Diophantine equation , then all solutions areSubtract two solutions and use the fact that and are coprime integers. The linear Diophantine equation solvability criterion says that a particular solution exists exactly when divides ; the extended Euclidean algorithm constructs one. This parametrization separates existence from the complete family of answers.
Fermat number 2026-10-07
A Fermat number is for . Distinct Fermat numbers are coprime integers. Their prime divisors are constrained by the multiplicative order of modulo that prime; this remains useful whether or not the Fermat number itself is prime. The initial value must be distinguished when a statement restricts to positive indices.
Multiplicativity of an arithmetic function 2026-10-06
Multiplicativity means whenever are coprime integers. It allows values of an arithmetic function to be assembled from its values on prime powers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 ia Paper 4 7B b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 ia Paper 4 8B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ia Paper 4 1E ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ia Paper 4 6D a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ia Paper 4 6D c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 ia Paper 4 2E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 4 1D ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Write . The second modular congruence becomes . The Bezout identity above says that is the inverse of modulo , so . ThereforeThe checks are . The Chinese remainder theorem explains uniqueness modulo , since the moduli are coprime integers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 ia Paper 4 1D i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Use the Euclidean algorithm: , , , and . Back-substitution gives the Bezout identity . Multiplying by gives one solution of the linear Diophantine equation, and shifting the coefficients by multiples of reduces it toIndeed, . More generally all solutions are , , : subtracting this particular solution gives , and the coprime integers force .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 ia Paper 4 1E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The Euclidean algorithm givesThus the greatest common divisor is . The extended Euclidean algorithm reverses these divisions:This supplies the Bezout identity with , .
To obtain all solutions of a linear Diophantine equation, subtract this particular solution from any other and divide by . The result is . Since and are coprime integers, divides , givingEvery displayed pair satisfies the original linear Diophantine equation, so the parametrization is exhaustive.
For the modular arithmetic calculation, , so is the modular inverse of . Multiplication gives . The admissible integers are for , ending at ; the next is . There are such integers.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ia Paper 4 2E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The Chinese remainder theorem says that for pairwise coprime integers , any prescribed residue modulo each is realized by exactly one residue class modulo . The Fermat little theorem says that for a prime number and an integer not divisible by , ; equivalently, for every integer .
For the given prime number, write . Its square is for some integer , since one of two consecutive integers is even. Therefore . The Fermat little theorem applied modulo gives , hence ; applied modulo it gives . These applications are valid because .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 3 1H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
A reduced positive definite binary quadratic form satisfies , with when or . These inequalities select representatives under proper equivalence of binary quadratic forms; the changes of variables have integer entries and determinant .
For the first binary quadratic form, put , . For the second, put , . Both changes preserve coprime integers, and giveProper representation means using . For , gives a value greater than , while forces . For , the smallest values are and . For , again gives only primitively; gives , and gives at least . Thus the three smallest properly represented values areFor example the original variables can be chosen as for , and for .
Every positive definite binary quadratic form can be reduced: integer shears first make , and interchanging the variables when decreases the positive leading coefficient, so this procedure terminates. To enumerate the reduced forms of discriminant minus forty-four, reduction gives , hence . Checking with the reduced inequalities gives exactlyThe second represents only even integers. The last two have the same represented values, by . The first and third are the reduced versions of and . Therefore every represented odd integer occurs in at least one of , whether or not its original representation was primitive.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 4 1E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The extended Euclidean algorithm givesBack-substituting in these equations produces the Bezout identityThus one integer solution is . In fact, subtracting this Bezout identity from any other solution and using that and are coprime integers gives all solutions: , , where .
For the modular arithmetic calculation, is a prime number and is coprime to it, so Fermat little theorem gives . Since , and the preceding Bezout identity identifies as the modular multiplicative inverse of , we obtainConsequently the least positive representative is .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 4 6E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
Multiplying the desired representation by turns it into the integer equationSince and are coprime integers, the necessary modular multiplicative inverses exist. Choose the unique representativesThen is divisible by both and , hence by their product, because they are coprime. Definingtherefore gives an integer and proves existence. Any other representation, reduced modulo and , must have the same and , since their allowed ranges contain exactly one representative of each residue. The integer equation then forces the same . This proves uniqueness.
For the prime-power fraction decomposition, put and . The distinct prime-power factors are pairwise coprime, and has a modular multiplicative inverse modulo . DefineEvery term with is divisible by , while . Thus is divisible by all the pairwise coprime and therefore by . With , division by yields the required representation. Reducing any such representation modulo each proves uniqueness exactly as above. This is the residue-solving mechanism of the Chinese remainder theorem.
For , the complementary factors are . The required modular inverses givebecause , , and . Their numerator sum is . Thus the unique decomposition is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 iii Paper 124 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
An additive arithmetic function satisfies for coprime integers ; a completely additive arithmetic function satisfies this for all positive . In either case . The Fundamental theorem of arithmetic gives , where means that the prime valuation of at is exactly .
Under the discrete uniform distribution on , the expectation of the indicator function of isThe formula remains valid when . Applying linearity of expectation to the finite prime power decomposition proves the required mean formula:
For the last assertion, write the excess prime-factor multiplicity directly as a sum of nonnegative indicator functions:Here is the prime omega function and is the total number of prime factors. The expectation is bounded independently of , sinceThus Markov inequality gives vanishing probability on every diverging scale: