Fermat quotient
If is an integer not divisible by a positive prime , then Fermat’s little theorem (a.k.a. Fermat’s theorem) guarantees that the difference is divisible by . The integer
is called the Fermat quotient of modulo . Compare it with the Wilson quotient
, which is similarly related to Wilson’s theorem.
Lerch’s formula
for an odd prime connects the Fermat quotients and the Wilson quotient.
If is a positive prime but not a Wilson prime, and is its Wilson quotient, then the expression
is called the Fermat–Wilson quotient of . Sondow proves in [1] that the greatest common divisor of all Fermat–Wilson quotients is 24.
References
- 1 Jonathan Sondow: Lerch Quotients, Lerch Primes,Fermat–Wilson Quotients, and the Wieferich-non-Wilson Primes 2, 3, 14771. Available at http://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.3113v3.pdfarXiv.