Bézout's identity (also called Bézout's lemma) is a theorem in elementary number theory: let a and b be nonzero integers and let d be their greatest common divisor. Then there exist integers x and y such that
Contents
- Structure of solutions
- Example
- Proof
- For three or more integers
- For polynomials
- For principal ideal domains
- History
- References
In addition,
The integers x and y are called Bézout coefficients for (a, b); they are not unique. A pair of Bézout coefficients can be computed by the extended Euclidean algorithm. If both a and b are nonzero, the extended Euclidean algorithm produces one of the two pairs such that
Many theorems of elementary theory of numbers, such as Euclid's lemma or Chinese remainder theorem, result from Bézout's identity.
A Bézout domain is an integral domain in which Bézout's identity holds. In particular, Bézout's identity holds in principal ideal domains. Every theorem that results from Bézout's identity is thus true in all these domains.
Structure of solutions
When one pair of Bézout coefficients (x, y) has been computed (e.g., using extended Euclidean algorithm), all pairs can be represented in the form
where k is an arbitrary integer and the fractions simplify to integers.
Among these pairs of Bézout coefficients, exactly two of them satisfy
and equality may occur only if one of a and b divides the other. This relies on a property of Euclidean division: given two integers c and d, if d does not divide c, there is exactly one pair (q,r) such that c = dq + r and 0 < r < |d|, and another one such that c = dq + r and 0 < -r < |d|. The two pairs of small Bézout's coefficients are obtained by choosing k in the above formula for getting either remainder of the division of x by
The Extended Euclidean algorithm always produces one of these two minimal pairs.
Example
Let a = 12 and b = 42, gcd (12, 42) = 6. Then we have the following Bézout's identities, with the Bézout coefficients written in red for the minimal pairs and in blue for the other ones.
Proof
(proof adapted from 'proofwiki.org')
Bézout's lemma is a consequence of the defining property of Euclidean division, namely: that dividing a positive integer
i.e.
To begin the proof of Bézout's lemma, let
let
let
If n is not divisible by d, then according to Euclidean division,
which of course is of the form
But
Since
Therefore,
If there exists another common divisor (
If
Therefore, (finally)
This proof does not provide a method for computing Bézout's coefficients. However, Bézout's lemma is also a corollary of the proof of the Extended Euclidean algorithm and this algorithm does provide an efficient method of computing these coefficients. This algorithm and the associated proof may also be extended to any Euclidean domain.
For three or more integers
Bézout's identity can be extended to more than two integers: if
then there are integers
has the following properties:
For polynomials
Bézout's identity works for univariate polynomials over a field exactly in the same ways as for integers. In particular the Bézout's coefficients and the greatest common divisor may be computed with the Extended Euclidean algorithm.
As the common roots of two polynomials are the roots of their greatest common divisor, Bézout's identity and fundamental theorem of algebra imply the following result:
For univariate polynomials f and g with coefficients in a field, there exist polynomials a and b such that af + bg = 1 if and only if f and g have no common root in any algebraically closed field (commonly the field of complex numbers).The generalization of this result to any number of polynomials and indeterminates is Hilbert's Nullstellensatz.
For principal ideal domains
As noted in the introduction, Bézout's identity works not only in the ring of integers, but also in any other principal ideal domain (PID). That is, if R is a PID, and a and b are elements of R, and d is a greatest common divisor of a and b, then there are elements x and y in R such that ax + by = d. The reason: the ideal Ra+Rb is principal and indeed is equal to Rd.
An integral domain in which Bézout's identity holds is called a Bézout domain.
History
French mathematician Étienne Bézout (1730–1783) proved this identity for polynomials. However, this statement for integers can be found already in the work of another French mathematician, Claude Gaspard Bachet de Méziriac (1581–1638).