Abstract

We investigate the provability of some properties of abelian groups and quadratic residues in variants of bounded arithmetic. Specifically, we show that the structure theorem for finite abelian groups is provable in S22 + iWPHP, and use it to derive Fermat's little theorem and Euler's criterion for the Legendre symbol in S22 + iWPHP extended by the pigeonhole principle PHP. We prove the quadratic reciprocity theorem in the arithmetic theories T20 + Count2 and I Δ0 + Count2 with modulo-2 counting principles