[Math] Does every prime > 2 have a primitive root that is a prime

number theory

Every prime number has a primitive root. Actually, for every prime number p a considerable percentage of the numbers from 2 to p-1 are primitive roots (with the exception p = 2 which is the only prime that has 1 as a primitive root).

Following a discussion how to find primitive roots, I thought it would be a good idea to start checking whether the small primes (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, … ) are primitive roots because they seem to be more than average likely to be primitive roots. That obviously raises the question whether every prime p other than 2 actually has a primitive root in the range from 2 to p-1 that is prime.

Googling didn't find any answer. There doesn't seem to be an obvious answer, for example p = 41 has the primitive root 6 but neither 2 nor 3 are primitive roots (2^20 = 3^8 = 1 modulo 41). There should always be a prime primitive root because of the sheer numbers of primitive roots (p = 271 with smallest prime primitive root 43 seems quite exceptional), but a proof would be nice.

Best Answer

The answer is yes. Let $a$ be a primitive root of $p$. Then $a+kp$ is a primitive root of $p$ for every $k$. By Dirichlet's Theorem on primes in arithmetic progression, there are infinitely many primes of the form $a+kp$.

Remark: The problem of whether for any prime $p\gt 2$ there is a primitive roots $a$ with $2\le a\le p-1$ is open. I believe that the best unconditional result is that for large enough $p$, the least prime primitive root of $p$ is $\lt p^k$, for a constant $k\approx 3$. Under reasonable but unproved hypotheses (versions of GRH) one can bring this down to a power of $\log p$.

One can find some information, and references, in Greg Martin's The Least Prime Primitive Root and the Shifted Sieve.

You may also want to look at this paper, sadly behind a pay wall. There is a fair literature on the subject.