Robin Luo

Gary Mullen
Math 311W
April 28, 2014
Primitive Elements Modulo a Prime p
For the purpose of clarity, assume p to be an odd prime and g to be a primitive element in
the set of integers modulo the prime p. It is easily observed that g exists for at least certain values
of p. For example, if p were to take on the lowest value possible, three, then out of the three
elements in the set of integers modulo the prime p, there is at least one number, when raised to
the power of two, that will produce one modulo three. A mathematician can calculate that when
two is squared, the result, in modulo three, is one. However, such an example leads to
unanswered questions, such as whether or not there is always a primitive element for each p, how
many primitive elements exist for each p, and what process a mathematician can take to find all
of these primitive elements.
Fermats Little Theorem implies that gp-1 1 (modulo p) for every prime p, a statement
that equates to declaring that every odd prime p has a primitive element. Does that mean that
even if p was the prime 829, then a primitive element would still exist? Well, for the prime p, the
set of integers modulo this prime p will have a total of p elements, ranging from zero to p-1.
Assuming that for this specific prime p, there does indeed exist a primitive element g, then
multiplying every single one of the elements from the set by g will produce a new list of numbers
starting on 0, g, and 2g and ending on (p-1)g. Now, the product of all of the new numbers is

congruent to the product of all of the elements from the original set modulo p. From the product
of all of the new numbers, multiple gs can be factored out, and if counted, exactly p-1 gs will be
factored out (gp-1) so that the product of all of the numbers from the original set can be divided
from both sides of the equation. After such mathematics calculations, it can be observed that gp-1
truly is congruent to 1 modulo p for every single possible odd prime value that p can take on.
The reason that such mathematical calculations turns out to be true is because when the original
elements from zero to p-1 are multiplied by g, the new list of numbers, when reduced by modulo
p, are the exact same numbers as the original elements from the set, only in a different order, so
essentially, the two sides of the equation must be congruent modulo p since both sides are
products of the same numbers. Therefore, the answer to the question is yes, a primitive element
would exist even if p contained the value 829. And even if p equaled 3571. In fact, for each odd
prime p, there is always a primitive element g.
A notable pattern in the study of primitive elements is that every non-zero element h in the
set of integers modulo p can be written as a power of g. Take p equals five for example: the only
primitive element corresponding to this specific prime is two, and two to the power of zero
equals one, two to the power of one equals two, two cubed equals three modulo five, and finally
two squared equals four. This pattern is actually crucial in finding other primitive elements
because a mathematician only knows that he or she has found every primitive element when
every non-zero h in the set of integers modulo p has been expressed as a power of all of the
primitive elements. To show that such a claim is true, a mathematician may try to find all of the
primitive elements of the prime seven. He first checks to see whether or not two, the smallest
possible primitive element of any prime, is a potential answer, and he confirms it by raising two
to the power of six in order to attain one modulo seven. Next, he calculates which non-zero

elements can be expressed by raising two to every non-negative power smaller than p, which in
this case is seven. Clearly, one, two, and four can be equated by raising two to the powers of
zero, one, and two, respectively. Due to the fact that the elements three, five, and six are missing
from this particular primitive element, the mathematician should know that at least one more
primitive element exists for the prime seven in order to satisfy the rule that each and every nonzero h in the set be expressed as a power of g. Therefore, he checks the next number, three, and
indeed three is a primitive element because three raised to the power of six gives him one
modulo seven. Calculating for the non-zero elements, he discovers that three is the last primitive
element of the prime seven because the missing elements three, five, and six are expressed by
raising three to the powers of one, five, and three, respectively. Consequently, this scenario
shows that a person can find the total number of primitive elements of p by first finding the
number of non-zero elements that can be written as powers of the smallest primitive element and
then working from there to see if more primitive elements exist depending on whether or not all
the non-zero elements in the set of integers modulo p are expressed.
Finding the primitive elements of small primes such as five and seven are relatively
simply, but how does one approach finding the primitive elements of a number like 71, or even a
bigger number? In other words, given one primitive element of a certain odd prime p, one can
check for the existence of other primitive elements by procuring the list every non-zero h in the
set of integers modulo p through raising the given primitive element to each power from zero to
p-1. If every non-zero number in the set is found, then stop, for all of the primitive elements have
been found at this point. However, if otherwise, then choose other non-zero and non-negative
integers less than p to check whether or not they are primitive elements, and once a new number
is found to be a primitive element, produce a new list of non-zero numbers as was done with the

given primitive element. Keep checking integers less than p for whether they are primitive
elements until each non-zero h can be expressed. Typically, the larger the value of the prime p,
the more primitive elements there will be, and that makes sense because it would be almost
impossible for one primitive element to express every single non-zero h by getting raised to
different powers, and thus other primitive elements would probably exist to help express the
other missing non-zero elements from the set of integers modulo p.