Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/iii/paper-28/3/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 iii Paper 28 3 ii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Reduce to . Because , the multiplication-by-n morphism on the reduced elliptic curve is a separable, surjective morphism of degree . Choose a point with . Its coordinates lie in some finite field .
Let be the finite unramified extension with residue field . The curve retains good reduction over . Its smooth integral model and the Hensel lemma give surjectivity of good reduction over a local field, so lift to some . This lift need not satisfy exactly, but its errorhas zero reduction and belongs to , the kernel of reduction of an elliptic curve.
The parameter at infinity identifies with the maximal ideal equipped with the formal group of an elliptic curve. The integral power series for and its inverse from part (i) remain integral over . They converge on : terms of degree tend to zero in valuation because their coefficients are integral and the argument has positive valuation. Hence multiplication by is bijective on . Choose its unique solution to , and put . ThenThe residue-field extension supplies a division point modulo , and the formal-group inverse corrects the error without introducing ramification. This is the local construction underlying the uniform unramified division field over a local field and unramified division torsors at good primes.
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