Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/iii/paper-26/2/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 26 2 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Write . Its only finite subgroup is trivial. In particular, a real place cannot acquire complex inertia in this Zp-extension: the possible nontrivial inertia at a real place has order two. Thus every infinite place splits in the tower.
Suppose that no finite prime ramified. Every finite layer would then be an abelian everywhere unramified extension of number fields, including splitting at real places. Every layer would lie in the ordinary Hilbert class field of , a finite extension. Their degrees are unbounded, a contradiction. Therefore some finite prime must ramify.
Let have residue characteristic . Apply local class field theory to the corresponding decomposition group, a closed subgroup of . The image of the unit group is the inertia group. Its first principal-unit subgroup is a pro-l group, so its continuous image in the pro-p group is trivial. The residue-unit quotient is the finite group . Its image is finite, and is therefore also trivial in the torsion-free group . The entire inertia group is trivial. HenceEquivalently, the tame ramification relation with a Frobenius element would force a tame inertia generator to satisfy , which is impossible nontrivially in .
For the final assertion, the cyclotomic Zp-extension of is . Fix and put , a finite extension of . Let be the completion of at its unique prime over . This is a totally ramified extension of of degree . In a compatible local algebraic closure,Here the inequality follows from the tower through . The right side is unbounded. These composita occur among the completions of the cyclotomic tower over , so has unbounded ramification index, in particular nontrivial inertia group. ThusThis argument allows an arbitrary finite intersection between and the rational cyclotomic tower; it does not assume disjointness.
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