Number Theory – Proving $3$ is a Primitive Root of Any Fermat Prime Without Quadratic Reciprocity

number theoryprime numbers

Browsing around online, I find a handful of proofs that $3$ is always a primitive root of any Fermat prime $2^n+1$. One particular proof is found in problems 4 and 5 here. Another proof I found on a page at SUNYSB makes use of Pepin's test whose proof seems to require quadratic reciprocity.

So out of curiosity, is it possible to prove that any Fermat prime has $3$ as a primitive root without use of quadratic reciprocity?

The few observations I do know is that if $2^n+1$ is prime for $n\gt 1$, then $n$ is actually a power of $2$, and that in this case $U(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z})$ has order $2^n$, so the order of $3$ must also be a power of $2$, but I couldn't get much further than that.

Best Answer

Hint from Ireland/Rosen which avoids explicitly using quadratic reciprocity:

If $3$ is not a primitive element, show that $3$ is congruent to a square. Use exercise $4$ (which states that if $q$ is a prime and $q \equiv 1 \pmod{4}$, then $x$ is a quadratic residue $\bmod q$ if and only if $-x$ is a quadratic residue $\bmod{q}$) to show that there is a number $a$ such that $-3 \equiv a^2 \pmod{p}$. Now solve $2u \equiv - 1 + a \pmod{p}$ and show that $u$ has order $3$. This would imply that $p \equiv 1 \pmod{3}$, which cannot be true.