Glossary of Number Theory

Number theory is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of the integers.

Glossary

pairwise coprime - a set of integers is pairwise coprime if no two elements of the set share any factor other than 1 or -1.  (Note: 1 is coprime to every integer by this definition.)

quadratic residue - a square, modulo some number.  A number, n, is said to be a quadratic residue (mod p) if k²=n (mod p) for some integer, k.

quadratic non-residue - a non-square, modulo some number.  If n is not a quadratic residue (mod p), then n is a quadratic non-residue (mod p).  It's a bit of an odd expression, since a residue (mod p) of a number, n, is the remainder upon division of n by p.  If it happens that n isn't the square of any number, that doesn't make n a non-residue, but perhaps non-quadratic.

Related pages in this website

Other glossaries: Geometry Glossary, Statistics Glossary, Topology Glossary

The webmaster and author of the Math Help site is Graeme McRae.
     [home]  [email]  [search]  [Links to Math Sites]  [Whiteboard]