Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-analytic-number-theory-and-elliptic-curves-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2009/b/5/a/i/solution

Put . The formal group identity gives , so is a unit in a ring in , even if has zero divisors.
A differential is invariant under formal translation if
as an identity of formal power series. Setting gives . Consequently every invariant differential of a formal group law, if it exists, must have the form . In particular there can be only one with constant coefficient one.
Existence follows directly from associativity. Differentiate
with respect to at zero, obtaining
Every displayed is a unit in a ring, so
This is precisely invariance of . Thus
Normalization means its constant coefficient is one. This proves both existence and uniqueness over an arbitrary commutative ring, without division by any integer.

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