Final digit strings of powers (Q873910)

For an arbitrary integer \(b\), and natural numbers \(k\) and \(m\), the authors determine whether \(b\) occurs as a \(k\)th-power residue modulo \(m\) and if so, how often. The case where \(0 \leq b < m = 10^r\) is especially interesting, since then we ask (in decimal notation) about the appearance of \(b\) as the \(r\) least significant decimal digits of a perfect \(k\)th power. For example, 5000 can appear as ending decimal block in a cube, but not in a square. The proofs only use the Chinese remainder theorem and Gauss's theorem on the group structure of the multiplicative group modulo \(p^r\) (cyclic when \(p\) is odd).