Number Theory Commons^™

A Case Study On Hooley's Conditional Proof Of Artin's Primitive Root Conjecture, Shalome Kurian

Rose-Hulman Undergraduate Mathematics Journal

Artin’s Primitive Root Conjecture represents one of many famous problems in elementary number theory that has resisted complete solution thus far. Significant progress was made in 1967, when Christopher Hooley published a conditional proof of the conjecture under the assumption of a certain case of the Generalised Riemann Hypothesis. In this survey we present a description of the conjecture and the underlying algebraic theory, and provide a detailed account of Hooley’s proof which is intended to be accessible to those with only undergraduate level knowledge. We also discuss a result concerning the qx+1 problem, whose proof requires similar techniques to …