Fermat quotient

From the definition, it is obvious that

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}q_{p}(1)&\equiv 0&&{\pmod {p}}\\q_{p}(-a)&\equiv q_{p}(a)&&{\pmod {p}}\quad ({\text{since }}2\mid p-1)\end{aligned}}}$

In 1850, Gotthold Eisenstein proved that if a and b are both coprime to p, then:^[5]

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}q_{p}(ab)&\equiv q_{p}(a)+q_{p}(b)&&{\pmod {p}}\\q_{p}(a^{r})&\equiv rq_{p}(a)&&{\pmod {p}}\\q_{p}(p\mp a)&\equiv q_{p}(a)\pm {\tfrac {1}{a}}&&{\pmod {p}}\\q_{p}(p\mp 1)&\equiv \pm 1&&{\pmod {p}}\end{aligned}}}$

Eisenstein likened the first two of these congruences to properties of logarithms. These properties imply

${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}q_{p}\!\left({\tfrac {1}{a}}\right)&\equiv -q_{p}(a)&&{\pmod {p}}\\q_{p}\!\left({\tfrac {a}{b}}\right)&\equiv q_{p}(a)-q_{p}(b)&&{\pmod {p}}\end{aligned}}}$

In 1895, Dmitry Mirimanoff pointed out that an iteration of Eisenstein's rules gives the corollary:^[6]

${\displaystyle q_{p}(a+np)\equiv q_{p}(a)-n\cdot {\tfrac {1}{a}}{\pmod {p}}.}$

From this, it follows that:^[7]

${\displaystyle q_{p}(a+np^{2})\equiv q_{p}(a){\pmod {p}}.}$

M. Lerch proved in 1905 that^[8][9][10]

${\displaystyle \sum _{j=1}^{p-1}q_{p}(j)\equiv W_{p}{\pmod {p}}.}$

Here ${\displaystyle W_{p}}$ is the Wilson quotient.

Eisenstein discovered that the Fermat quotient with base 2 could be expressed in terms of the sum of the reciprocals modulo p of the numbers lying in the first half of the range {1, ..., p − 1}:

${\displaystyle -2q_{p}(2)\equiv \sum _{k=1}^{\frac {p-1}{2}}{\frac {1}{k}}{\pmod {p}}.}$

Later writers showed that the number of terms required in such a representation could be reduced from 1/2 to 1/4, 1/5, or even 1/6:

${\displaystyle -3q_{p}(2)\equiv \sum _{k=1}^{\lfloor {\frac {p}{4}}\rfloor }{\frac {1}{k}}{\pmod {p}}.}$^[11]

${\displaystyle 4q_{p}(2)\equiv \sum _{k=\lfloor {\frac {p}{10}}\rfloor +1}^{\lfloor {\frac {2p}{10}}\rfloor }{\frac {1}{k}}+\sum _{k=\lfloor {\frac {3p}{10}}\rfloor +1}^{\lfloor {\frac {4p}{10}}\rfloor }{\frac {1}{k}}{\pmod {p}}.}$^[12]

${\displaystyle 2q_{p}(2)\equiv \sum _{k=\lfloor {\frac {p}{6}}\rfloor +1}^{\lfloor {\frac {p}{3}}\rfloor }{\frac {1}{k}}{\pmod {p}}.}$^[13][14]

Eisenstein's series also has an increasingly complex connection to the Fermat quotients with other bases, the first few examples being:

${\displaystyle -3q_{p}(3)\equiv 2\sum _{k=1}^{\lfloor {\frac {p}{3}}\rfloor }{\frac {1}{k}}{\pmod {p}}.}$^[15]

${\displaystyle -5q_{p}(5)\equiv 4\sum _{k=1}^{\lfloor {\frac {p}{5}}\rfloor }{\frac {1}{k}}+2\sum _{k=\lfloor {\frac {p}{5}}\rfloor +1}^{\lfloor {\frac {2p}{5}}\rfloor }{\frac {1}{k}}{\pmod {p}}.}$^[16]