Distribution of quadratic non-residues

which are not primitive roots mod p

Proposition 1. Let p be a prime. Let a 6= ±1 be any square-free integer

and q > 2 is a prime. Then
(
p ≡ 1 (mod q)
⇐⇒ p splits completely in Lq = Q(ζq , a1/q )
a(p−1)/q ≡ 1 (mod p)

where ζq is a primitive q-th root of unity.

Proof. Let g be a primitive root modulo p.
Claim 1. p ≡ 1 (mod q) if and only if xq − 1 has q distinct solutions in
Z/pZ.
If xq −1 has q distinct solutions in Z/pZ, there exists an element ν ∈ Z/pZ
with ν 6= 1 which satisfies ν q ≡ 1 (mod p). Hence, by little Fermat theorem,
q divides p − 1 and hence we get p ≡ 1 (mod q).
Conversely, let p ≡ 1 (mod q). Since q|(p − 1), let ν = g (p−1)/q . Clearly,
ν satisfies the equation xq ≡ 1 (mod p). Also, the elements ν 2 , ν 3 , · · · , ν q of
Z/pZ are clearly satisfying the equation. Since these are incongruent modulo
p, the equation xq − 1 has q distinct solutions modulo p.
Claim 2. Assume p ≡ 1 (mod q). Then a(p−1)/q ≡ 1 (mod p) if and only
if xq ≡ a (mod p) has q distinct solutions mod p.
Suppose a(p−1)/q ≡ 1 (mod p). Write a = g r for some integer 0 < r < p.
By the assumption, we have g r(p−1)/q ≡ 1 (mod p). Since g is a primitive
root modulo p, r(p − 1)/q is a multiple of p − 1. Therefore, q|r and hence
r = qb. Thus we have (g b )q ≡ a (mod p).
If ν1 , ν2 , · · · , νq be the distinct solutions of xq ≡ 1 (mod p), then, clearly,
ν1 g , · · · , νq g b are all distinct solutions of xq ≡ a (mod p). Therefore, the
b

polynomial xq − a has q distinct solutions modulo p.

Conversely suppose that xq ≡ a (mod p) has q distinct solutions mod p.
Let ν ∈ Z/pZ be one of the solutions. Then we have ν q = a ∈ Z/pZ. Hence,

a(p−1)/q = (ν q )(p−1)/q = ν p−1 = 1 ∈ Z/pZ.

This proves the claim 2.

1
 To prove the proposition, first we shall assume that p ≡ 1 (mod q) and
(p−1)/q
a ≡ 1 (mod p) holds. Therefore, by claim 2, the polynomial xq − a
factors completely in Z/pZ. Since it is irreducible, by Eisenstein criterion, the
field Q(a1/q ) is of degree q over Q and the prime divisors of the discriminant
of Q(a1/q ) divides either a or q. Since, by the assumption, the primes p ≡ 1
(mod q) doesn’t divide a and q, we have, by the theorem of Dedekind, this
prime p splits completely in Q(a1/q ). Also, since p ≡ 1 (mod q), by Claim
1, the polynomial xq − 1 factors completely in Z/pZ. Since (xq − 1)/(x − 1)
is irreducible (as q is a prime), the field Q(ζq ) is of degree q − 1 and its
discriminant is q k for some positive integer k. By the theorem of Dedekind,
we see that p ≡ 1 (mod q) splits completely in Q(ζq ). Since these two fields
are linearly disjoint (as the degree q of Q(a1/q ) over Q is a prime to the degree
of Q(ζq )), the primes p ≡ 1 (mod q) splits completely in the compositum of
these two fields which is Lq .
Conversely let us assume that p splits completely in Lq . We want to prove
that p ≡ 1 (mod q) and a(p−1)/q ≡ 1 (mod p). Let P be a prime ideal in
OLq , the ring of integers of Lq such that P|p. Let p1 = P ∩ OQ(a1/q ) and
p2 = P ∩ OQ(ζq ) . These ideals p1 and p2 are prime ideals in OQ(a1/q ) and OQ(ζq )
respectively and p1 |p and p2 |p.
Since p splits completely in L, we have, gP (Lq /Q) = [Lq : Q] and hence
eP (Lq /Q) = fP (Lq /Q) = 1. Since Lq over Q is a finite sepearable extension,
we have the following relation among ramification indices and the residual
degrees.
1 = eP (Lq /Q) = eP (Lq /Q(a1/q ))ep1 (Q(a1/q )/Q)
and
1 = eP (Lq /Q) = eP (Lq /Q(ζq ))ep2 (Q(ζq )/Q).
Also,
1 = fP (Lq /Q) = fP (Lq /Q(a1/q ))fp1 (Q(a1/q )/Q)
and
1 = fP (Lq /Q) = fP (Lq /Q(ζq ))fp2 (Q(ζq )/Q).
Hence we get
1 = ep2 (Q(ζq )/Q) = ep1 (Q(a1/q )/Q)
and
1 = fp2 (Q(ζq )/Q) = fp1 (Q(a1/q )/Q).

2
Since P is an arbitrary prime ideal lying above p, the above relation is true
for all prime ideals P in OLq lying above p. Therefore, we get,

gp2 (Q(ζq )/Q) = [Q(ζq ) : Q]

and
gp1 (Q(a1/q )/Q) = [Q(a1/q ) : Q].
Hence, p splits completely in Q(a1/q ) as well as Q(ζq ). Therefore, the field
polynomials xq −a and xq −1, respectively, factors completely in Z/pZ. Hence
by Claim 1 and Claim 2, we get the result. 2

Theorem 1. Let a 6= 1 be any square-free integer. Then there exist infinitely

many primes p for which a is a quadratic non-residue mod p, but not a
primitive root mod p.

Proof. If a = −1, then all the primes p ≡ 3 (mod 4), different from 3, for
which a is a quadratic non-residue mod p, but not a primitive root modulo
p. It is easy to prove that such primes are infinitely many in number.
We shall √ assume that the given square-free integer a 6= −1, −3 and let
ζ = (−1 + −3)/2.
Consider √ the number field L3 = Q(a1/3 , ζ). Let M2 be the quadratic
extension Q( a) of Q. Since a 6= −3, clearly, M2 6= Q(ζ). Since M2 is a
degree 2 extension, either it is a subfield of L3 or it is linearly disjoint from
it. If it is a subfield, then L3 contains a1/6 and ζ. Any prime p dividing a has
ramification index 6 in Q(a1/6 ); however it is unramified Q(ζ). So, these two
fields are linearly disjoint and hence the degree of L3 will become at least 12
which is not true. Hence, L3 and M2 are linearly disjoint fields.
Consider L = L3 M2 the compositum of these two fields. Hence

Gal(L/Q) ∼
= Gal(L3 /Q) × Gal(M2 /Q). (1)

Now define the set of primes S as follows: p ∈ S if and only if p completely

splits in L3 and p doesn’t split in M2 .

Let p be a prime unramified in L. Then p ∈ S if and only if the Frobenius

element σp ∈ Gal(L/Q) is equal to σp = (1, −1). This is because, the first
projection is trivial if and only if p splits completely in L3 (that is, Dp is
trivial) and the second projection is non-trivial if and only if p doesn’t split

3
in M2 and hence it is −1 (as Galois group is of order 2). Therefore, by
Chebotarev’s density theorem, S contains infinitely many primes.

By Proposition 1, any prime p ∈ S satisfies

a(p−1)/3 ≡ 1 (mod p). (2)
Since p ∈ S doesn’t split in M2 , it is a known fact that p satisfies
!
a
= −1, (3)
p
!
a
where denotes the Legendre symbol. Hence, by the equations (2), (3)
p
and the observation that S consists of infinitely many primes, we conclude
that there are infinitely many primes p for which a is a quadratic non-residue,
but not a primitive root mod p.
√
For a = −3, by considering the fields L5 = Q(ζ5 , a1/5 ), M3 = Q( −3)
and L = L5 M3 in the above set up, we get the result. 2

For a square-free integer a 6= ±1, we let

Na (x) = {p ≤ x : a is a primitive root mod p} .
Define
|Na (x)|
d(a) = lim ,
x→∞ π(x)

where π(x) counts the number of primes p ≤ x. The limit above may or may
not exist. Under GRH, by the result of Hooley, d(a) exists and
∞
X µ(k)
d(a) = 1/k ) : Q]
,
k=1 [Q(ζk , a

where µ(n) denotes the mobious function.

Theorem 2. Let a 6= ±1 be a given square-free integer. If we denote the

density of primes p for which a is a quadratic non-residue, but not a primitive
root modulo p by b(a), then
1
 
b(a) = − d(a) .
2

4
 √
Proof. Given that a 6= 1 is a square-free integer. Hence Q( a) is a quadratic
field over Q. Let ( ! )
a
Sa (x) = p ≤ x : = −1 .
p
From the basic algebraic number theory results, it is known that

|Sa (x)| 1
lim = .
x→∞ π(x) 2

Let

Ma (x) = {p ≤ x : a is a non residue, but not a primitive root mod p} .

Then, it is clear that, Sa (x) = Na (x) ∪ Ma (x) and Na (x) ∩ Ma (x) = ∅.

Therefore, we get,

|Ma (x)| |Sa (x)| |Na (x)|

lim = lim − lim
x→∞ π(x) x→∞ π(x) x→∞ π(x)
1
b(a) = − d(a).
2
Hence the theorem. 2

A. I. Vinogradov (in Proc. Steklov Inst. Math. 112 (1971), 124-) proved
that
π(x)
Na (X) ≤ d(a)π(x) + C 1/4 log2 log x
log x
holds unconditionally. Furthermore, the lower bound

π(x)
Na (X) ≥ d(a)π(x) − C 1/6
log2 log x
log x
is quaranteed by the density conjecture for Artin L-series for non-abelian
characters of the Galois groups of the normal extensions K/Q induced by the
equations
yq − a = 0
where q runs over the primes.