Dirichlet's theorem for modulus four
Statement
Suppose is an odd natural number. Then, there exist infinitely many prime numbers such that:
.
Facts used
- Congruence condition for two to be a quadratic residue
- Congruence condition for minus one to be a quadratic residue
- Nonconstant polynomial with integer coefficients and constant term of absolute value one takes infinitely many pairwise relatively prime values
Proof
We need to check two congruence classes modulo : the congruence class of and the congruence class of .
The congruence class of modulo
By fact (2), is a quadratic residue modulo if and only if . In particular, a prime can divide for some natural number if and only if .
Consider now the polynomial . For any natural number , all prime divisors of are congruent to modulo . By fact (3), there are infinitely many pairwise relatively prime values of , so we get infinitely many primes that are congruent to modulo .
Congruence class of modulo
By fact (1), is a quadratic residue modulo if and only if . In particular, a prime can divide for some natural number if and only if .
Consider now the polynomial . For any natural number , all prime divisors of are congruent to . However, itself is modulo , so must have at least one prime divisor that is modulo . By fact (3), there are infinitely many pairwise relatively prime values of , yielding infinitely many distinct primes that are modulo . In particular, all these primes are modulo .