Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 22 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We use two precise facts about the formal group of an elliptic curve. At a prime of good reduction, its kernel of reduction of an elliptic curve is identified by the uniformizer with the group . For odd this group is torsion-free. To see the second fact, the integral invariant differential of a formal group law has the form , with . Integrating constructs the formal logarithmIt is a group homomorphism to the additive group. For and ,when is odd. Hence the series converges and , so it is injective. The target has no nonzero torsion. Therefore reduction is injective on the entire rational torsion subgroup at an odd prime of good reduction, including its -primary part.
For the present elliptic curve, , so every odd is a prime of good reduction. If , the Legendre symbol of is . The values and cancel in the sum of the Legendre symbols of , yieldingThe rational torsion subgroup injects into each of these groups, so it is finite and its order divides every such .
For any odd prime , the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions supplies infinitely many with and . Discard the finitely many dividing . Since , it cannot divide . Similarly choose , again avoiding ; then , so .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 26 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The Hasse-Minkowski theorem says that a nondegenerate quadratic form over a number field has a nonzero isotropic vector over that field if and only if it has one over every completion. In particular, over one tests and every . For the present integral form, a rational isotropic vector can be multiplied by a common denominator to give an integer one. This is the Hasse-Minkowski principle.
Write , and . All three primes are odd and exceed three: or would make composite. The second supplementary law for quadratic reciprocity gives
Necessity at . Scale any nonzero vector over so that its coordinates lie in and at least one is a unit. Reduction of its equation modulo gives , since twelve is invertible modulo . If the Legendre symbol is , this forces . The original equation then forces , because its other two terms are divisible by . This contradicts the normalization. Thus
Sufficiency at the coefficient primes. Suppose . A nonzero solution modulo is . Its -derivative is nonzero modulo , so fixing the other two coordinates and applying the Hensel lemma lifts it to .
Since , the same Legendre symbol criterion gives . Modulo , the equation reduces to , and the vector is a simple zero in the coordinate. It lifts to . Modulo , the coefficients of and are respectively and , so is a zero with nonzero -derivative. It lifts to .
The remaining odd primes. If is odd and divides none of , the reduced ternary quadratic form is nondegenerate. An elementary finite-field argument finds a zero with : if its coefficients are , the setsboth have elements, so intersect. The resulting vector has nonzero -derivative , and the Hensel lemma lifts it. This isotropy of nondegenerate ternary quadratic forms over finite fields verifies every remaining odd completion without an extra congruence condition.
The dyadic and real places. Setting reduces the dyadic problem toThe right side is a 2-adic unit congruent to modulo eight. The unit square classes of the p-adic integers computed above show that it is a square in . This also explains the printed hint: its integer can be taken as . Over , the positive and negative coefficients make the form indefinite; for instance gives a nonzero zero.
All completions now have a nonzero isotropic vector. The Hasse-Minkowski theorem, followed by clearing denominators, proves
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 1 1H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
For an odd prime , the Legendre symbol is if , if is a nonzero square modulo , and otherwise. Euler's criterion statesIf both sides vanish. Otherwise write for a primitive root . The squares are precisely the even powers of , while has order two and therefore equals . Hence , proving the criterion and the useful special case .
For odd , . Every prime divisor of this number is odd, and , so . Euler's criterion forces , hence or . A product of such primes can be only if a prime occurs to an odd power.
Suppose the primes were . Choose the odd integer (or for an empty list). None of these primes divides , since the latter is modulo each . Yet the preceding argument gives a prime divisor , outside the list. This contradiction proves infinitely many primes congruent to modulo .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ii Paper 4 9H Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The Chinese remainder theorem says that for pairwise coprime positive moduli , arbitrary residue classes modulo each specify one residue class modulo . For an odd positive integer , the Jacobi symbol is , where each factor is a Legendre symbol; for the empty product is one. The Jacobi symbol is multiplicative in , and is zero exactly when and have a common prime factor.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 125 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For , the displayed integral equation has nonzero elliptic-curve discriminant modulo , so it has good reduction. Let be the Legendre symbol, with . Counting the two, one, or zero possible ordinates over each givesIf , then and the terms for and cancel. The term at zero vanishes. Thus the count is .
For the converse, suppose , and put . The Euler criterion and the sum of powers over a finite field show that the Trace of Frobenius satisfiesIndeed, among the positive exponents in this polynomial, of degree , only has a nonzero sum over , and that sum is . Since , the coefficient formula for trace of Frobenius modulo p yieldsNeither nor the binomial coefficient vanishes modulo . Hence , proving the point-count criterion for y squared equals x cubed plus k x:
We use the following formal logarithm fact, also useful for the next part. For a formal group law over , its logarithm has coefficients with , obtained by integrating its integral invariant differential. If is odd and , every term of degree has valuation strictly greater than , since . Thus the logarithm converges and is nonzero at . Its homomorphism into the additive characteristic-zero group proves torsion-freeness of the formal group over Qp for odd p. Consequently reduction injects the entire rational torsion subgroup at any odd prime of good reduction, including its -primary torsion. In particular the torsion subgroup is finite, and its order divides at every good .
By the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions, choose a good prime . Then , bounding the two-primary part by four. For any odd prime dividing the torsion order, the Chinese remainder theorem and the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions give a good prime with and , avoiding the finitely many primes dividing . But then , a contradiction. Therefore
The order four does occur. For , the elliptic-curve addition formula gives , so has order four. More precisely, the only nonzero rational 2-torsion point when is , so order four means a cyclic group with a rational half of this point. The duplication formula isSuch a half must have . Writing , positivity of forces . Then , so is a rational square, equivalently for an integer . Conversely is a half of when . The rational torsion on y squared equals x cubed plus positive k x is therefore cyclic of order four exactly for these , and otherwise cyclic of order two.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 1G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
For an odd prime number , the Legendre symbol is zero when , one when is a nonzero quadratic residue modulo , and minus one otherwise. The number-theoretic Gauss lemma says that, for , , where counts those least positive residues of exceeding .
For , the residues are simply , so . Examining the four odd residue classes modulo eight givesNow and is odd. The multiplicative order of divides but not . Since is a power of two, every proper divisor of divides , whence . Lagrange's theorem for finite groups gives . Because , this implies , so the supplementary law just proved gives . By Euler's criterion, , and consequently . Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 3 1G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
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 . HenceEach 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 2 1G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
For an odd prime , the Legendre symbol isGauss lemma says that if and of the least positive residues ofexceed , then .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 3 11G Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Write an integral binary quadratic form as , with discriminant of a binary quadratic form . It is positive definite when and . Two forms are equivalent if one is obtained from the other by an integral linear change of variables whose matrix lies in . A positive definite form is reduced whenwith when or .
To reduce a form, apply a unimodular shear with chosen so that the new middle coefficient has . If the new final coefficient is smaller than , exchange the variables, using a determinant-one rotation, so that the positive leading coefficient decreases from to . Repeating must stop because a positive integer cannot decrease indefinitely. At termination , and elementary sign changes impose the boundary convention. This is the reduction algorithm for a positive definite binary quadratic form, and proves that every positive definite form is equivalent to a reduced one.
The displayed forms have discriminant , so the intended discriminant is . For any reduced form of this discriminant, enumeration of reduced binary quadratic forms givesThe boundary convention and direct checking of leave only
Suppose first that a prime is represented by . The identityshows modulo both and that is a nonzero square. HenceSimilarly,Modulo , this says is a square, while modulo it says is a square. Since , the multiplicativity of the Legendre symbol gives
Conversely, suppose the two displayed Legendre symbols have the same sign. By quadratic reciprocity,Choose an odd integer satisfying . Since is odd, is also divisible by , sois a positive definite integral form of discriminant that represents . Reducing yields either or , and equivalence preserves represented integers. The necessary symbol calculation above determines which one: the positive pair selects , and the negative pair selects . Therefore
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 2 1I Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
If the positive odd integer has prime factorizationits Jacobi symbol iswhere each factor is a Legendre symbol; by convention . Thus the symbol is zero exactly when .
The quadratic reciprocity law for the Jacobi symbol says that for coprime positive odd integers ,To prove it, write and . The quadratic reciprocity law for distinct odd primes statesMultiplying this identity over with multiplicities gives the required product of Jacobi symbols. Its sign exponent modulo two isbecause multiplication of odd integers adds the quantities modulo two. This proves the law.
For the requested value, two applications of reciprocity givesince , , and is a quadratic nonresidue modulo .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 11H i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
For an odd prime number , the Legendre symbol isIf , multiplicativity of the Legendre symbol givesBoth factors belong to , so they are equal. Thus .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ii Paper 1 1I Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Euler's criterion states that for an odd prime number and ,where the right-hand side is the Legendre symbol.
Let be a primitive root modulo . Its multiplicative order is , so . This power has square , and the only roots of modulo the odd prime are . ThereforeEuler's criterion now gives , so every primitive root is a quadratic nonresidue.
Now let be a Fermat prime, with . The number of primitive roots modulo isThere are also exactly quadratic nonresidues. Since every primitive root is a nonresidue, these equally large sets coincide. Thus every quadratic nonresidue modulo is a primitive root, as summarized by Quadratic nonresidues modulo a Fermat prime.
Finally, and . Quadratic reciprocity therefore givesHence is a quadratic nonresidue modulo , and consequently
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 4 11I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The Gauss lemma says that, for , if of the least positive residues oflie in , thenTo prove it, replace every residue above by its negative. The resulting absolute residues are distinct up to sign and therefore form a permutation ofMultiplying the congruences givesCancel the nonzero factorial and apply Euler's criterion.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 4 11G a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For an odd prime , the Legendre symbol isEuler criterion states thatIf , both sides vanish. Otherwise choose a primitive root and write . Since ,The power is a square exactly when is even, proving the criterion. Taking gives the first supplementary law for quadratic reciprocity
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 ii Paper 4 1G a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For an odd prime , the Legendre symbol isFor distinct odd primes and , quadratic reciprocity states that
Point-count criterion for y squared equals x cubed plus k x Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-07
For odd and , take . If , pairing with cancels the Legendre symbols. If , the coefficient formula for trace of Frobenius modulo p givesThe binomial coefficient is nonzero because every factorial involved is shorter than . Thus the Trace of Frobenius is not zero in the second case.
Quadratic Gauss sum Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
For and the Legendre symbol , the quadratic Gauss sum isIt equals for and for with the standard choice of square root.