Simple but deadly

Let u = 2 2015 1 u=2^{2015}-1 . Evaluate the congruence

φ ( u ) ( m o d 2015 ) \varphi\left(u\right) \pmod{2015}

where φ ( u ) \varphi(u) is the Euler totient function.

Tip : You probably don't want to compute φ ( u ) \varphi(u) because that would be, well, rather large -- there is a nice way around it.


The answer is 0.

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2 solutions

Otto Bretscher
Mar 17, 2016

As Dylon points out, we can use the fact that in a finite group the order of any element divides the order of the group, a corollary to Lagrange's Theorem.

For a fixed positive integer n n , let G G be the multiplicative group modulo 2 n 1 2^n-1 , with o r d ( G ) = ϕ ( 2 n 1 ) ord(G)=\phi(2^n-1) . Now o r d ( 2 ) = n ord(2)=n , so that n ϕ ( 2 n 1 ) n|\phi(2^n-1) . Letting n = 2015 n=2015 , we see that the answer is 0. \boxed{0.}

Dylan Pentland
Jul 10, 2015

Consider U 2 2015 1 U_{2^{2015}-1} , the set of all residues in modulo 2 2015 1 2^{2015}-1 relatively prime to 2 2015 1 2^{2015}-1 . Being in this set implies that an element is a 'unit', or has a multiplicative inverse.

Note that 2 U 2 2015 1 2 \in U_{2^{2015}-1} , and the order of two is 2015 2015 . I'll sketch out a quick proof that a U k o r d ( a ) φ ( k ) a \in U_k \Rightarrow ord(a)|\varphi(k) :


Observe that a φ ( k ) 1 ( m o d k ) a^{\varphi(k)}\equiv1\pmod{k} , which is just Euler's totient theorem. Now, consider the following set of powers of a a :

{ a 1 , a 2 , a 3 . . . a o r d ( a ) } \{a^1,a^2,a^3 ... a^{ord(a)} \}

Since a o r d ( a ) 1 , a^{ord(a)}\equiv1, we have a k a k ( m o d o r d ( a ) ) a^k\equiv a^{k \pmod{ord(a)}} , right? So since by definition for k < o r d ( a ) k<ord(a) we have a k 1 a^k\neq1 we know a k 1 a^k\equiv1 iff k k is 0 ( m o d o r d ( a ) ) 0 \pmod{ord(a)} or o r d ( a ) k ord(a)|k . Hence, o r d ( a ) φ ( k ) ord(a)|\varphi(k) .


Now we done, since o r d ( 2 ) φ ( 2 2015 1 ) ord(2)|\varphi(2^{2015}-1) or 2015 φ ( 2 2015 1 ) 2015|\varphi(2^{2015}-1) .

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