Quadratic residues of certain types (Q2477928)

In this paper, the author proves that if \(p\) is a prime not in \(\{2,3,5,7,13,37\}\), then there is a prime \(q\equiv 1\pmod 4\) which is smaller than \(p\) and is a quadratic residue modulo \(p\). He also proves a similar theorem for primes \(q\equiv 3\pmod 4\) except that now the list of forbidden values of \(p\) is \(\{2,3,5,7,17\}\). The proof of the first result combines clever elementary arguments with nonelementary results concerning Euler's convenient numbers, as well as the classification of imaginary quadratic fields of class number \(2\), while the proof of the second statement is elementary. The paper is well written and easy to read.