IB HL Mathematical

Exploration

Exploring Properties of Prime Numbers

through Congruence and Theorems

Personal code: kzr920

Prime numbers..........................................................................................2

Congruence and its property.....................................................................4

DISCUSSION.................................................................................................6

Fermat’s Little Theorem.........................................................................6

Wilson’s Theorem...................................................................................6

Euler’s Totient Function and Euler’s Totient Theorem.............................7

Fermat’s 4n+1 Theorem and Fermat’s Numbers...................................8

Dirichlet’s Theorem................................................................................9

Chebyshev’s Theorem..........................................................................10

Mersenne Numbers..............................................................................10

Prime numbers as unknows.................................................................11

Density and distribution of prime numbers..........................................11

Ulam’s Spiral and Spiral Squares.........................................................12

BIBLIOGRAPHY:...........................................................................................14

1
INTRODUCTION

Prime numbers

From elements in mathematics, prime number occupy a unique and

essential position. They are the fundamental building blocks for all natural

numbers. Prime number is defined as a natural number that is greater

than 1 and has no positive integer divisors other than 1 and itself. This

implies that prime number cannot be evenly divided (without a remainder)

by any other whole number greater than 1. The theorem of arithmetic

states that every natural number greater than 1 can be expressed

Figure uniquely as a product of primes.

every factor is a prime number.

In the Figure 1 prime numbers were marked with

orange colour. However, the number 1 is flagged

with another colour as it does not classify as

composite or prime number. As the fundamental

theorem of arithmetic states, every number has

exactly one way to be factorized by primes. If 1

were a prime, this uniqueness would be lost.

Along with larger positive integers, prime numbers

get more scare. However, it is impossible to find all

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 of them. According to Euclid’s Theorem, there are

infinitely many primes.

As prime numbers were identified to be infinite, there must be a way to

somehow identify them. The Sieve of Eratosthenes is one of the simplest

methods used to determine all the prime numbers up to a certain natural

number n . This works through the elimination of composite numbers from

interval [ 2 , n ].

The first step is to write down all the integers up to n . My n=33.

The first number is 2 and stays the same. However, every multiplicity of 2

will be eliminated. Another number that is not eliminated is 3, it stays the

same and again, every multiplicity of 3 is eliminated. Next number is 5,

which is treated the same way. This method would be continued till we

reach number a ≤ √ n. In this case,

√ n= √33 ≈ 5 , 75.

Therefore, every number that is left within our interval, is prime number.

I decided to visually present this technique below:

Figure 2: an example of the sieve of Eratosthenes method

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

3
Congruence and its property

Prime numbers and congruence are connected to each other throughout

different fields of mathematics. Congruence may improve checking and

identifying if certain number is prime. It is also often used to finding

divisors of numbers, which are crucial to determinate prime divisors of

them. However, congruence has its own laws and properties and is

connected to modular arithmetic.

Equation of dividing two integers:

X
=Q remainder R , where:
Y

X − dividend Y −divisor Q−quotient R−remainder

This equation focuses on the remainder when using modular arithmetic.

In those situations, ‘remainder’ is replaced by modulo operator, written as

mod in the equation. Therefore, the same equation looks this way:

X mod Y =R

I will provide an example for better representation:

17
=5 remainder 2 , it is the same as: 17 mod 3=2
3

Congruence is a fundamental concept in number theory. It deals with the

remainders left after dividing two integers and describe the relationship

between them. By the definition, when the difference (a−b) is divisible by

m , integers a and b are congruent modulo m . In other words, a and b are

4
congruent modulo m , when both integers give the same remainder after

dividing them by m .

This is noted as: a ≡ b(mod m)

To illustrate, I will provide example:

( 18−6 )
18 ≡6 mod 2 ⟹ =6 (there is no remainder ), and 18 mod 2=6 mod 2=0
2

Also, congruence has its properties. They are true when a , b , c , m∈ Z +

1. Every number is congruent to itself modulo any number: a ≡ a ¿

2. If a is congruent to b modulo m , then b is congruent to a modulo m

a ≡ b ( mod m ) , then b ≡ a(mod m)

3. If a is congruent to b modulo m , and b is congruent to c modulo m ,

then a is congruent to c modulom :

a ≡ b ( mod m ) ,∧b ≡ c ( mod m ) , then a ≡ c (mod m)

4. The sum of congruent numbers modulo m is congruent to the sum

of their corresponding values modulo m :

a ≡ b ( mod m ) and c ≡d ( mod m ), then a+ c ≡ b+d ( mod m )

5. The product of congruent numbers modulo m is congruent to the

product of their corresponding values modulo m :

a ≡ b ( mod m ) and c ≡d ( mod m ), then a × c ≡ b ×d ( mod m )

5
Those properties of congruence act like properties of numbers in

arithmetic. Thanks to knowing them, we can manipulate congruences and

make deduction about remainders without explicitly calculating them.

DISCUSSION

Fermat’s Little Theorem

Despite searching for prime factors in a number that we want to check if it

is prime or composite, we may also use different theorems which are

primality tests. An example of it is Fermat’s Little Theorem. It states that: If

p is a prime number, and a number a it is not divisible by p, then

However, this method is inefficient while tested numbers are big. Also, this

method is unreliable with some conditions. There may be different bases (

a , b ,c ,...) of the same exponent p−1 , for which this theorem gives different

results. Therefore, we cannot always be sure if tested number p is

composite or prime.

Wilson’s Theorem

With the usage of congruence there are also some other ways to check if a

number is prime. One of those methods is to use Wilson’s Theorem, which

states:

A positive integer n ≥ 2 is a prime number if,

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 ( n−1 ) ! ≡−1 (mod n) or ( n−1 ) ! ≡(n−1)(mod n).

This theorem establishes a relationship between prime numbers and

factorials using modular arithmetic.

Euler’s Totient Function and Euler’s Totient Theorem

Like Fermat’s little theorem, Euler’s theorem is as primality test. Crucial for

this theorem, is to know Euler’s Function ϕ (n) , which counts the number of

positive integers less than n that are relatively prime to n . Relatively

primes mean that both numbers have no common factors except 1. From

the graph below, we can see that Euler’s Totient Function value if n is a

prime, ϕ ( n )=n−1.

Figure 3

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When primality testing numbern , we use theorem: a ϕ (n ) ≡1 (mod n). If this

formula is true, n is a prime number. This method works only, when n is

positive integer and a is an integer relatively prime to n. However, this

may also be unreliable in some circumstances as some composite

numbers might satisfy this equation with a certain integer a .

Fermat’s 4n+1 Theorem and Fermat’s Numbers

Odd prime numbers can be divided by 4 , giving remainder of 1 or 3.

Therefore, we can divide those numbers into two groups: first with

remaining 1 and second with remaining 3. Those prime numbers we can

write in two forms depending on the remainder. Those are: 4 k +1 and 4 k +3,

where k in this equation is an integer.

All the odd prime numbers which can be written in the form 4 k +1, can also

be presented as the sum of two squares (Fermat’s 4n+1 Theorem):

p=a +b , where p is a prime, and a , b are integers. However, this theorem

cannot be applied to those odd primes which give remainder of 3 when

dividing by 4 [3 (mod 4)].

Figure 4

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This Fermat’s Theorem is a classic theorem when talking about prime
n
numbers. Fermat also came up with hypothesis that 22 +1is always a prime

number, where n is positive integer. Those are now called Fermat’s

Numbers (F n - nth Fermat’s Number).

However, he only checked this for n ∈{0 , 1, 2 , 3 , 4 }. Euler was first to check

Fermat’s hypothesis, he found out that this formula does not give a prime

number when n=5. Because the number gets big very quickly, we know

Fermat’s Numbers only for n ∈{0 , 1, 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 }. Therefore, those numbers

(which are prime) are considered as infinite (as we know there is infinitely

many prime numbers).

Figure 5

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Dirichlet’s Theorem

This theorem generalizes many known facts such as Fermat’s 4n+1

Theorem. Dirichlet stated that: there is infinitely many prime numbers in a

form nd +a , where d and a are relatively prime and positive integers, and

n> 0. For example, 4 n+1(d =4 , a=1)or 4 n+3(d=4 , a=3). In other words, there

are infinitely many primes p ≡a (mod d ¿.

Figure 6

Chebyshev’s Theorem

This theorem states that for any n that is greater than 1, there is a prime

number p , that n< p< 2n . This, however, may be simplified to:

For any number n greater than 6 there are at least two prime number

between nand 2 n. At least one of them in form 4 n+1, as well as in form

4 n+3.

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Mersenne Numbers

Every number in a form M n=2n −1, where nis a natural number, we consider

as Mersenne’s. Every value of M n is also a sum of finite geometric series:

There is also a theorem that states that if M n is a prime number, then n is

also a prime. Similarly to Fermat’s Number, we can assume that there is

infinitely many Mersenne Number as we do not know every prime number.

Prime numbers as unknows

When searching for prime number within equations with unknows, we may

consider:
2 2 2 2
p −2 q =−1, which we can also annotate as: a n−2 bn=−1.

However, we may find unknown primes (a n andb n) only if n will be an odd

prime itself.

In Figure 7, there are all the solutions for n ≤ 30, which are odd primes and

give result of two primes (a n andb n). We may notice that those number get

bigger with every another n . Therefore, we might assume that this

equation has infinitely many solutions in prime numbers a n andb n.

Figure 7

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Density and distribution of prime numbers

The distribution of prime numbers can be explained by Prime Number

Theorem. It states that along with the rise of prime numbers, they become

also less common. Thanks to this theorem, we may find the probability

1
that the selected integer x is prime using .
ln x

To find the density of primes we must use prime-counting function π (x )

that gives the number of primes less than or equal to x . Good

x
approximation of this prime-counting function is . Therefore, we may
ln x

x
use asymptotic notation: π ( x) , as x increases. Because there are
ln (x )

infinitely many primes, we also may notice that: lim π ( x )=∞ .

Ulam’s Spiral and Spiral Squares

Ulam’s Spiral is a visual representation of prime numbers. This effect is

caused by some properties:

On diagonals there are only odd numbers or only even number. Therefore,

only on diagonals with odd numbers, primes can be generated. Also, prime

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numbers cluster more on some of them. The centre of Ulam’s Spiral is 1

and, on the chart, above marked with orange.

Figure 8

The lines in the spiral correspond to specific quadratic polynomials, as

some of them may generate more prime numbers than others. Some
2
polynomials, which are known as Euler’s prime generating, f p ( x )=x + x + p

generate prime numbers for x=0 , 1 , … , p−2, but only when p ∈[3 , 5 , 11,17 , 41].

A polynomial: x 2−x +41, is known to generate the largest number of primes

from all the Euler’s prime-generating polynomials.

As parabolas of polynomial are placed on the spiral, they start to create

lines. This one example (Euler’s polynomial) gives a prime number for

every x ∈[0 , 39].

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Below I represent the Spiral Square, where p=41, that is also a centre of

the spiral (highlighted with orange colour). All the primes are indicated

with pink colour. It is clearly visible that primes are located on one

diagonal. They cover every prime number generated by polynomial

x −x +41 for every x ∈[0 , 39].

Figure 9

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