On a question of \(f\)-exunits in \(\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z} \) (Q2025599)

An element \(u \) in a commutative ring \(R\) with unity is said to be an exceptional unit if both \(u\) and \(u-1\) are units in \(R\). For \(R = \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}\) and for any \(f(X)\in \mathbb{Z}[X]\), an element \(\bar{u}\in \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z} \) is called an \(f\)-exunit if \(\gcd(f(u), n) = 1\). In [\textit{J. C. Anand} et al., Arch. Math. 114, No. 3, 271--283 (2020; Zbl 1446.11015)], the number of representations of a non-zero element of \(\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}\) as a sum of two \(f\)-exunits for a particular infinite family of polynomials \(f(X)\in \mathbb{Z}[X]\) is obtained. Let \(n\) be an integer \(\geq 2\), \( f(X)\in \mathbb{Z}[X]\setminus \mathbb{Z}\) and \(c\) an integer with \(1 \leq c \leq n- 1\). For every prime \(p\) we denote by \(N^f(p,c)\) the number of integers \(l\) with \(0 \leq l \leq p-1\) such that either \(f(l) \equiv 0 \pmod p\) or \(f(c-l)\equiv 0\pmod p\). In this paper, it is proved that the number of elements of the set \[E_{f,n}(c)=\{(x, y)\in E_{f,n}\times E_{f,n}/\ x + y \equiv c\pmod n\}\] is equal to the quantity \[ n \prod_{p\mid n} \left(1-\frac{N^f(p,c)}{p}\right).\] Furthermore, this result is specialised in case of linear and quadratic polynomials.