Kurze Darstellung des fünften Gauss'schen Beweises für den quadratischen Reziprozitätssatz (Q2652504)

Gauss's fifth proof of the quadratic reciprocity law compares the Legendre symbols \((\frac pq)\) and \((\frac qp)\) by working with residue classes modulo \(pq\). Rédei presents a very concise version of this proof by using the following notation: for a set \(M\) of real numbers, let \(q^-(M)\) denote the number of all integers in \(M\) whose smallest absolute remainder modulo \(q\) is negative, and \(p^+ q^- M\) the number of those integers in \(M\) whose smallest absolute remainder modulo \(p\) is positive and that modulo \(q\) is negative. Finally, for a function in two variables let \(S[f(p,q)] = f(p,q) + f(q,p)\). The key to the proof is the relation \(S[p^+q^-(0,\frac12pq)] = \frac14(p-1)(q-1)\), which implies \[ S[q^-(p, 2p, \dots, \frac{q-1}2p)] \equiv \frac14(p-1)(q-1) \bmod 2; \] by Gauss's Lemma, this congruence is equivalent to the quadratic reciprocity law.