Counting solutions to $x^2+y^2 \equiv d \pmod{p}$ for a prime $p \equiv 3 \pmod 4$

elementary-number-theorymodular arithmeticquadratic-residues

For any given $p \equiv 3 \pmod{4}$ and $d=1, 2, \dots, p-1$, we would like to show that there are always exactly $p+1$ solutions to $x^2 + y^2 \equiv d \pmod{p}$.
This conjecture comes from some numerical experiments, and certainly holds for all small primes $p \equiv 3 \pmod{4}$.

We can show this in the special case when $d$ is a quadratic residue $\pmod{p}$, but are stuck on the general case.

Best Answer

alright, there are $p^2$ ordered pairs. The only pair giving $x^2 + y^2 = 0$ is $(0,0)$ because $-1$ is not a square.

For each of $(p-1)/2$ residues, there are $p+1$ pairs, total is $ \frac{p^2 - 1}{2}$

Thus $0$ and residues total to $ \frac{p^2 + 1}{2}$

Finally, nonresidues total to $ \frac{p^2 - 1}{2},$ and there are $(p-1)/2$ non-residues. The count for each non-residue is also $p+1$

P.S. the reason the counts are all the same for nonresidues: let $n_1, n_2$ be nonresidues, so there is some nonzero $a$ with $n_2 = n_1 a^2.$ Then we have a bijection of $(x,y)$ pairs: $x^2 + y^2 = n_1 $ maps to $(ax)^2 + ( ay)^2 = n_1 a^2 = n_2$