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Tuesday, July 30, 2019

p^4 mod 120

In this video the Numberphile people prove in 2 ways that p^2 \equiv 1\ (mod\ 24). That is that p^2 - 1 is divisible by 24, for p, a prime greater than 3.

The second proof involves considering the 3 numbers p-1, p, p+1. There are three consecutive numbers, so one of them must be divisible by 3 but it can't be p. Also one of p-1, p+1 is divisible by 4 and the other is divisible by 2. That means that (p-1)(p+1) is divisible by 2{\times}4{\times}3 = 24. So, expanding out the product, p^2 \equiv 1\ (mod\ 24)

So then I wondered what if we look at one number either side of these three. We still have the previous factors but now we must also have a 5 and if we now say p > 5 then the 5 can't be in p so we know that (p-2)(p-1)(p+1)(p+2) \equiv 0\ (mod\ 120)

Grouping things in +/- pairs we get (p^2-1)(p^2-4) \equiv 0\ (mod\ 120)

and multiplying out p^4 - 5p^2 + 4 \equiv 0\ (mod\ 120)

From the earlier result we know that p^2-1 \equiv 0\ (mod\ 24) so 5p^2-5 \equiv 0\ (mod\ 120). Adding that into the previous result gives us p^4 - 1 \equiv 0\ (mod\ 120)

So now we have p^4 \equiv 1\ (mod\ 120) for prime p>5.

Sadly throwing p-3 and p+3 in too doesn't get us a similar result, like p^6 \equiv 1\ (mod\ 840). With some fiddling around, we can get p^6 + 14p^2-14 \equiv 1\ (mod\ 840)

but nothing simpler jumps out.