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I realize that there is a similar post to this, but that post included a hint which we were not given. Also regarding that hint, I'm just wondering how someone could find it out for themselves. Here is the related post:

Show that every composite Fermat number is a pseudoprime base 2.

I know that $F_n = 2^{2^n} + 1$ and therefore $\,2^{2^n} \equiv -1 \pmod{F_n}$.

But I don't intuitively know the next step to take to show that $\ 2^{F_n}\equiv 2\pmod{\!F_n},\,$ i.e. that $$2^{2^{2^n} + 1} \equiv 2 \pmod{2^{2^n}+1}$$

So in essence, I would like to know how to solve it without knowing the hint. Thank you.

Bill Dubuque
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zodross
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We need to prove $$2^{2^{2^n}+1}\equiv 2 \mod 2^{2^n}+1$$

See that $2^{2^n}\equiv -1\mod 2^{2^n}+1$, and raising both sides to the power $2^{2^n-n}$, we see

$$(2^{2^n})^{2^{2^n-n}}\equiv 1\mod 2^{2^n}+1$$

and so

$$2^{2^n\cdot2^{2^n-n}}\equiv 2^{2^{2^n}}\equiv 1\mod 2^{2^n}+1$$

Now multiply by $2$ and we're done.