Permuting the Units

Modular Mathematics, Permuting the Units

Permuting the Units

The concepts of prime and composite don't make much sense in modular mathematics, but we still retain the notion of a unit.  Let x be a unit mod m if there is some y such that xy = 1 mod m.  In other words, y is the inverse of x.  Stepping back to the integers, we are asking whether yx - km = 1 has any solutions.  In fact it has an entire lattice of solutions in y and k, iff x and m are relatively prime.  Each value of y advances by m, hence all values of y are the same mod m, and the inverse of x is unique.

If u has inverse v and x has inverse y, ux has inverse vy.  Thus the product of units is another unit.  Multiplication by u maps units to units, and the map can be reversed by multiplying by v.  The map is one to one and onto, permuting the units about.