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How does PrimitiveRoot[n] select the particular primitive root it returns?

Posted 10 years ago

In Mathematica 9, the function PrimitiveRoot[n] does not always return the SMALLEST primitive root of n for composite n that have a primitive root.

How does Mathematica select the particular primitive root that it does return?

POSTED BY: Geoffrey Critzer
Posted 10 years ago

I'm not sure how the primitive root is chosen, but here are some ways to find the smallest primitive root in Mathematica.

In Mathematica 10 you can simply do

First[PrimitiveRootList[n]]

In Mathematica 9 we need to define a new function

HasPrimitiveRootQ[n_Integer?Positive] := n < 8 || (OddQ[n] && PrimePowerQ[n]) || (OddQ[n/2] && PrimePowerQ[n/2])
HasPrimitiveRootQ[_] = False;

SmallestPrimitiveRoot[n_] /; HasPrimitiveRootQ[n] := With[{g = PrimitiveRoot[n], phi = EulerPhi[n]},
  Min[PowerMod[g, Select[Range[phi], CoprimeQ[#, phi]&], n]]
]

Compare:

{PrimitiveRoot[82], SmallestPrimitiveRoot[82]}
(* {47, 7} *)
POSTED BY: Greg Hurst
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