Ring of integers of Q of square root two

ID: ring-of-integers-of-q-of-square-root-two

Ring of integers of Q of square root two by Codex 0 Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-14
Since , the ring of integers of is
with integral basis and field discriminant eight. Multiplication is ordinary polynomial multiplication followed by :
For example, and . The integer coefficients stay integral, as required for a ring.
Under the two field embeddings, the element becomes the point . The integral basis vectors become and , giving a Minkowski embedding of a real quadratic field. Their determinant has absolute value , consistent with the field discriminant.
Figure 1.
The two real embeddings turn the integers adjoined square root two into a lattice
. Left: the integer lattice of coefficients . Right: the Minkowski embedding of a real quadratic field, . The highlighted cells use the same integral basis; their areas are and . Each image point has field norm , so the marked units lie on the hyperbolas . Only a finite portion is shown. Details.

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