Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2011/ii/paper-1/20f/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2011 ii Paper 1 20F Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Put . The ring of integers of a number field is and the field discriminant is . The Minkowski bound for ideal classes says that each ideal class has an integral ideal representative of norm at most .
The prime two ramifies as , where . Three splits as , choosing , whereas five is inert because is not a square. The norm bound therefore leaves only the classes of , , and ; a norm-four ideal is and is principal.
The ideal is not principal, since an element of norm two would solve . On the other hand , and is divisible by and but not . Unique prime ideal factorization and the norm give . Thus , which has order two, and
For the Diophantine equation, must be positive. If were even, , impossible for a square. Thus is odd and even. If , then , but would have 17-adic valuation one while has valuation divisible by five, also impossible.
The ideals and are consequently coprime. A common prime divides and hence lies over two or seventeen, both excluded above. Their product is , so unique prime ideal factorization gives . Since the ideal class group has order four, forces . Write with integers . The only units are by their norm, and the sign can be absorbed into the fifth power. Hence .
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