Why is there a symbol for Legendre?

Why is there a symbol for Legendre?

The Legendre symbol is a function that encodes the information about whether a number is a quadratic residue modulo an odd prime. It is used in the law of quadratic reciprocity to simplify notation.

How do you get Legendre symbol?

In number theory, the Legendre symbol is a multiplicative function with values 1, −1, 0 that is a quadratic character modulo an odd prime number p: its value at a (nonzero) quadratic residue mod p is 1 and at a non-quadratic residue (non-residue) is −1.

How do you make a Legendre symbol in latex?

To use parameters, you can define:

  1. \newcommand{\legendre}[2]{\ensuremath{\left( \frac{#1}{#2} \right) }} This creates a new command with two arguments, to do Legendre symbols as \legendre{n}{p} – useful if you are in a number theory course.
  2. \newtheorem.
  3. \newtheorem*
  4. \newtheorem{thm}{Theorem}
  5. \newtheorem*{aside}{Aside}

How do you find the Jacobi symbol?

Quadratic reciprocity The Jacobi symbol, (m/n), is defined whenever n is an odd number. It has the following properties that enable it to be easily computed. (a/n) = (b/n) if a = b mod n.

Is 2 a quadratic residue?

THEOREM. The number 2 is a quadratic residue of primes of the form p = 8k + 1 and p = 8k + 7. The number 2 is not a quadratic residue of primes of the form p = 8k + 3 and p = 8k + 5. only if n is even.

What is the use of Jacobi symbol?

The Jacobi symbol is a generalization of the Legendre symbol, which can be used to simplify computations involving quadratic residues. It shares many of the properties of the Legendre symbol, and can be used to state and prove an extended version of the law of quadratic reciprocity.

What is an algebraic symbol?

Algebra is a part of mathematics which deals with symbols and the rules for manipulating those symbols. In algebra, those symbols represent quantities without fixed values, called as variables.