On a problem of P. Gallagher (Q1272197)

An old question of D. H. Lehmer is to get some significant understanding of the distribution of the difference in parity between \(a\) and \(b\) where \(ab\equiv 1 \pmod p\) and \(1\leq a,b<p\), for given prime \(p\). One can easily show that there are \(p/2 + O(p^{1/2+o(1)})\) such pairs with the same parity. In this paper the author considers whether there is such even distribution in short intervals. Specifically, for a given prime \(p\) and integer \(d\), the mean square of \(d/2\) minus the number of integers \(a\in (n,n+d]\) with \(a-b\) even where \(b\equiv 1/a \pmod p\) and \(1\leq b<p\) equals \(d/4 + O( d^2 \log^2 p/ p^{1/2})\). He also proves an analogous result for the frequency with which \(a\equiv b \pmod m\).