JOURNAL OF NUMBER THEORY 7, 184-188 (1975)
On the Distribution of the Primitive Roots of a Prime
MICHAEL SZALAY
Department of Algebra and Number Theory,
E&M’s Lo&d University, Bu&pest, Hungary
Communicated by P. Twin
Received March 14, 1972
In this paperit is shownthat the numtxr of pairsof consecutive primitive
roots modulep is asymptoticto (p - 2)(9Q 7 J)/@,7 l))*, and that, for all
sticiently largeprimesp, thereisat leastbriepair of contiutive primitiveroots
modulep. The theoremproved here is a gen~r&ati+n of !his proposition.
Another oneis mentionedin the renbrks.
1. INTRODUCTION
Vegh proved the following theorems in [4].
1. If p = 4k + 1 is a prime such that q~(p - l)/(p - 1) > ) and b is a
quadratic residue modulo p, then there is at least one primitive root of p
among the integers
g, + b, 82 + b,..., m,-1) + 6 g, 4 b’, g, + b’,..., gm(s-1)+ b’, (1)
where gl, g2 ,..., g,(,-,) denote the primitive roots of p, CJJ
denotes Euler’s
function, and b * b’ = 1 modp.
2. Ifp = 4k + 3 > 3 is a prime such that ~(p - l)/(p - 1) > $ and b
is an integer (p { b), then there is at least one primitive root of p among
the integers (1).
In a previous paper [5] we were dealing with the distribution of the
primitive roots of a prime. Using its arguments, we prove that (without
the above conditions), for all sufficiently large primesp (e.g., forp > 10ls),
there is at least one primitive root of p among the integers
g, + b, gz + L., g,(,-1) + b, (2)
where gl , g2 ,..., g,(,-l) denote the primitive roots ofp, v denotes Euler’s
function, and b is an integer (p r b).
184
Copyright Q 1975 by Academic Press, Inc.
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.
ON THE PRIhUTWE ROOTS OF A PRIME 185
Let N(p, b) denote the numbe’rof primitive raots ofp among the integers
(2). We show that
NP, b)
F-2 (p - 2) * (g(p - l)/(p - I))2 = l,
and mention our related results proved in [5].
2. PRELIMINARY LEMMAS
Let c&z) be the sum of the Ith powers of the primitive mth roots of
unity (m, 1 integers, m > 0, 1 > 0).
LEMMA 1 (Hardy- Wright [3, Theorem 2721).
where q~denotesEuler’sfunction, andp denotesthe Moebius function.
Let p be an odd prime, and let
29'..9 v-2 ‘p-1
Xl, x2 = Xl X62 = Xl 9x0 = Xl
be the multiplicative characters mod p with the convention ~~(0) = 0
(I = 0, l,..., p - 2). It is easy to see that the integer x (+ 0 modp) is a
primitive root mod p if and only if (xl(x))-’ is a primitive (p - 1)-th root
of unity.
LEMMA 2,
if x is a primitive root mod p,
otherwise.
Proof. The statement is obvious if x 3 0 modp. We assume that
x + 0 modp. Let q be a primitive (p - I)-th root of unity. Then, the
primitive (p - l>th roots of unity are
q”, $2 ,..., +-11, where 1 = j, -C j, -C -** < jm(9-1) = p - 2,
&,P - 1) = 1 (k = 1,2,. . ., 9)(p - 1)).
The expression
1 + q'kxltx) + m2x2c4 -b *** + bpF2 x9-2(x)
186 MICHAEL SZALAY
has the value p - 1 if (x&v))-~ = 7” and zero otherwise (for n f 0). By
summation over k, we have
%(P - 1) x0(x) + %(P - 1) n(x)
+ %(P - 1) x2(x) + .** + %--2(P - 1) XD-e(x)
= P- 1, if x is a primitive root modp,
10, otherwise,
because (x1(x))-l = ++ may be satisfied for at most one k.
LEMMA 3 (Davenport [I, Lemma 21). Let x’, x” be any nonprincipal
mod p, and let a, $ a, mod p. Then,
characters
j il x’h + 4) x”(x + 6): ) <pllz.
3. THE MAIN RKSULT
THEOREM.
I WP, b) - (P - 2) . (V(P - IMP - W I -C pllz 7 4”(p-l) +(v(p - l)/(p - W,
‘&here q~ denotes Euler’s function, and v(p - 1) ¬es the number of
different positive prime divisors of p -
ProoJ: Using Lemma 2, we have
9-l
NP, b) = c
x-1 I
r+--b(p)
x 5 z a,(~ - 1) xl(x + b)[
I
ON THE PRIMITlvE ROOTS OF A PRIME 187
= (P- 2XdP - l)l(P- w + (p ; 1)2
* c’ ork,(P - 1) %a(P - 1) $I x8&) xl& + w
O(kl.k8<P--8
Here, the last sum has the absolute value <plla if klkz + 0, by
Lemma 3, and 1 if k,kz = 0 (klz + k,2 # 0). Hence,
I WP9 b) - (P - 2)(dP - l)l(P - WI
k,s+k,a#O
< (ppy2)” ( FZ I %(P - q.
z=o
Here,
z 1al(p _ l)l = gz v(p _ 1) @((P - 0/(~7P - 1))
z=o d(P - o/(6 P - 1))
= T(P - 1) c p”((p - l)m v((p - 1)/d)
d&l d(P - w)
zzz Y(P - 1) a,;v.p2 (+) = 2”‘“-‘$(p - 1).
60
Consequently,
I WP> b) - (P - 2)(dP - l)/(p - 1y I -c p1’z4”‘9-l’((p(p - l)/(p - 1))s.
4. COROLLARIES
Using the well-known theorem (Hardy-Wright [3, Theorem 3171)
p(n) < 2’1CdlOl3 */log loI3 73 (e > 0, n > no(e)),
we obtain the following by our Theorem.
COROLLARY 1.
lim NP, b)
P-m3(p - 2)(7J(p - l)/(p - w = I*
188 MICHAEL SZALAY
COROLLARY2. Ifp > p0 , there is at least oneprimitive root ofp among
the integers (2). (It may be calculated that, e.g., p > 1O’Ois suficient.)
5. REMARKS
Let p be an odd prime, and let M(p, n) denote the number of sequences
x, x + l,..., x + n - 1
out of 1, 2,...,p - 1 which consist of primitive roots modulop.
Using another theorem of Davenport [2] (instead of Lemma 3) we
proved in the same way in [5] that
M(P, n)
?%p@(p - I)/(p - 1))” = lY
and, if p > pi(n), there are at least n consecutive primitive roots of p.
Note added inproof. In October1970I gavea detailedproof of myresultsaboutthe
distributionof primitive roots in the seminarof ProfessorPaul Turfin and this was
publishedin Mat. Lopok(1970,3-4, in Hungarianwith Englishabstract).My present
paperis an improvementof the resultsof E. Veghin Journal of Number Theory which
I found immediatelyafter readingVegh’[Link] article of J. Johnsen
waspublished(J. reine angew. Math. 251(1971),10-19)whichcontainsproofs of all
my [Link] proofs,however,differ from minein severalfundamentaldetails(e.g.,
in the formulaof my Lemma2 andmy proof for the presentspecialcaseiselementary).
ACKNOWLEDGMFXT
The author wishesto thank ProfessorPaulTuran for suggesting
the subjectof this
paperand for his remarks.
REFERENCES
1. H. DAVENPORT, On the distributionof the I-th powerresiduesmodp, J. Lunolm
Math. Sot. 7 (1932), 117-121.
2. H. DAVENPORT, On charactersumsin finite fields,Acta Math. 71 (1939), 9W21.
3. G. H. HARDY AND E. M. WRIGHT, “An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers,”
4th ed. Clarendon,Oxford, 1960.
4. E. VEGH, A note on the distributionof the primitive roots of a prime,.I. Number
Theory 3 (1971), 13-18.
5. M. SZALAY, On the distribution of primitive roots modp (in Hungarian),Mar.
Lapok 21 (1970), 357-362.
