I am self studying Apostol Dirichlet series and Modular functions in number theory and I am struck on Ch -2 Problem 17. It is a problem of elementary number theory but I am not able to think about it.
Question: if a, b, n are integers with n greater than or equal to 1 and ( a, b, n) =1 , then prove that the congruence ax- by=1 ( mod n) has exactly n solutions, distinct mod n.
I tried using solutions of diophantine equation ax+by= c but can't do it. Please help
Let $\gcd(a,n)=d$. Then $\gcd(b,d)=1$, so $by+1\equiv0\bmod d$ has a unique solution mod $d$, which lifts to $n/d$ solutions mod $n$. For each of those $n/d$ values of $y$, $(a/d)x\equiv(by+1)/d\bmod{n/d}$ has a unique solution mod $n/d$, which lifts to $d$ solutions mod $n$. So we have $n/d$ values of $y$, and, for each of them, $d$ values of $x$, hence, all told, $(n/d)d=n$ solutions.