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36 votes
3 answers
2k views

Nonabelian reciprocity law

I heard the following relation in a talk by Peter Scholze. Could someone explain "in a simple way" what is the precise relation between the polynomial $x^4-7x^2-3x+1 $ and the integral ...
117 votes
22 answers
39k views

What's the "best" proof of quadratic reciprocity?

For my purposes, you may want to interpret "best" as "clearest and easiest to understand for undergrads in a first number theory course," but don't feel too constrained.
66 votes
5 answers
6k views

What do theta functions have to do with quadratic reciprocity?

The theta function is the analytic function $\theta:U\to\mathbb{C}$ defined on the (open) right half-plane $U\subset\mathbb{C}$ by $\theta(\tau)=\sum_{n\in\mathbb{Z}}e^{-\pi n^2 \tau}$. It has the ...
14 votes
3 answers
3k views

Quadratic reciprocity and Weil reciprocity theorem

I was told that Weil reciprocity theorem (one has two meromorphic function $f,g$ on a complex curve $C$, so $\prod\limits_{x\in C} g(x)^{ord_xf}=\prod\limits_{x\in C}f(x)^{ord_xg} \ $ where $ord_xf$ ...
11 votes
2 answers
615 views

Jacobi symbols for two-square sums of primes

Given a prime $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$, Fermat's two-squares theorem discovered by Girard states that there exists two integers $A,B$ such that $p=A^2+B^2$. For all primes up to $10^7$ the integers $A$ and $...
7 votes
1 answer
339 views

Rational prime factors in the components of powers of Gaussian primes

Let $\pi=a+bi\in \mathbb{Z}[i]$ be a Gaussian prime with $a$ and $b$ nonzero, and $b$ even. For odd rational primes $p=\pi\bar\pi$ and $q\neq p$, define $\pi^{\frac{1}{2}\left(q-\left(\frac{-1}{q}\...
1 vote
1 answer
260 views

Conceptual explanation for extra/missing $p$ solutions to $x^2+y^2=a \pmod p$ at $a=0$

Throughout, $p$ will denote a prime integer, and $k$ an arbitrary integer. I have worked through V. Lebesgue's proof of quadratic reciprocity outlined by Keith Conrad in this MO thread, and I feel ...
1 vote
0 answers
136 views

Quadratic equations over Gaussian integers

Given an equation $x^2\equiv(a+ib)\bmod(c+id)$ where $a,b,c,d\in\mathbb Z$ holds, how to test if the equation has solutions and how to find the solutions in polynomial in $\log(|abcd|)$ time if $c+id$ ...
12 votes
1 answer
856 views

Quadratic reciprocity for three primes?

The quadratic reciprocity law states that for $p_1\ne p_2$ prime, the product $\left(\frac{p_1}{p_2}\right)\left(\frac{p_2}{p_1}\right)$ takes values $1$ or $-1$ depending on whether $p_1$ and $p_2$ ...
7 votes
2 answers
781 views

Could a nice principle be extracted from this lemma of Gauss

I asked the following question in the math SE, with a bounty of 200 pts, without result. question: To prove the quadratic reciprocity law, Gauss needed the following lemma: If $p$ is a prime number ...
1 vote
0 answers
477 views

Legendre Symbol of a Very, Very Large Value

I'm trying to use FLINT (Fast Library for Number Theory) to calculate the Legendre Symbol of the following: $$\left(\frac{n! + 1}{p}\right)$$ In my case, $p$ is a positive, odd prime (specifically $...
7 votes
0 answers
326 views

Expressing quartic Dirichlet characters modulo primes $p\equiv 1\bmod 4$ with Legendre symbols

Looking through some old notes of mine from two years ago I found some crude notes writing what amounted to the statement that for any prime $p\equiv 1\bmod 4$ one could express for any odd integer $p\...
2 votes
1 answer
128 views

Density of "simultaneous squares"

Let $(u,v)$ be a pair of non-zero integers. We say that $(u,v)$ is a pair of simultaneous squares if for all primes $p$ dividing $u$, we have $\left(\frac{v}{p}\right) = 1$ and for all primes $q$ ...
7 votes
0 answers
326 views

Chowla's Construction of prime having least quadratic non-residue $\gg \log p$

This paper by NC Ankeny mentions that " S. Chowla has proved that there exist infinitely many primes $k$ where the first $c_1\log k$ residues $(\bmod k)$ are all quadratic residues". I recently ...
21 votes
2 answers
2k views

Context for "Coronidis Loco" from Weil's Basic Number Theory

In Samuel James Patterson's article titled Gauss Sums in The Shaping of Arithmetic after C. F. Gauss’s Disquisitiones Arithmeticae, Patterson says "Hecke [proved] a beautiful theorem on the different ...
3 votes
1 answer
294 views

Given n and q, how to find p so q$\neq$n-th power (mod p)?

Reasonable exceptions allowed on $q$. Example solution: $n=2$. Suppose $q$ is odd. Let $p$ be so $pq\equiv -1$ (mod 8). Then $q\neq$ 2nd power (mod $p$) is the same as $\left(\frac{q}{p}\right)=-1$...
1 vote
1 answer
215 views

Computation of Hilbert symbol of order 4

We have explicit expressions for the quadratic Hilbert symbol over $\mathbb Q$, for example $\left(\dfrac{x,y}2\right)_2=(-1)^{\frac{x-1}2\frac{y-1}2} (x,y\ne2)$. Are similar expressions known for the ...
11 votes
2 answers
1k views

distribution of $\sqrt{-1} \mod p$

While reading up on quadratic reciprocity, I learned that if $p = 4k+1$ then $-1$ has a square root in $\mathbb{Z} / p \mathbb{Z}$. Let $r_p$ be an integer with $0\leq r_p < p$ and $r_p^2 \equiv -...
3 votes
0 answers
165 views

Averages of $L(s,\chi)$

Let $(\frac{m}{n})$ denote the usual quadratic Jacobi symbol. What is the abscissa of convergence of the double Dirichlet series ? $$ \sum_{\substack{m,n \in \mathbb{N} \\ \gcd(m,n)=1 \\m,n\equiv 1 \...
8 votes
1 answer
458 views

higher reciprocity theorems from ratios of Gauss sums

One recent proof of quadratic reciprocity involves computing various rations of the Gauss sum. In Quadratic reciprocity and the sign of the Gauss sum via the finite Weil representation Gurevich, ...
8 votes
1 answer
1k views

Biquadratic reciprocity for $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$ and $q\equiv 3\pmod 4$

For a prime $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$, let $\left(\frac{\cdot}{p}\right)_4$ denote the rational biquadratic residue symbol; that is, $$ \left(\frac{a}{p}\right)_4 = \begin{cases} \ \ \ ...
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

Consecutive non-quadratic residues

Inspired by this recent question, I wondered if a similar result is true for quadratic non-residues, namely, if it is true that for every $k \in \mathbb{N}$ there exists a prime $p$ such that exists $...
21 votes
1 answer
2k views

Gauss linking integral and quadratic reciprocity

In the setting of Mazur's "primes and knots" analogy, prime ideals $\mathfrak p\subset\mathcal O_K$ correspond to "knots" $\operatorname{Spec}\mathcal O_K/\mathfrak p$ inside a "3-manifold" $\...