Additive inverse Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Past exam of the algebraic number theory course of the University of Oxford 2023 2 a Solution 2026-10-25
Write . We prove unique factorization of ideals in a number field, rather than assuming this conclusion as a property of a Dedekind domain. Three preliminary facts about will be useful. Its additive group is a finite-rank free abelian group, so every ideal is finitely generated and the ascending chain condition holds. It is an integrally closed domain, by integral dependence is transitive. Finally, every nonzero prime ideal is a maximal ideal. For this last fact, choose . Multiplication by is an injective endomorphism of the finite-rank free abelian group with nonzero determinant, so is finite. Consequently is a finite integral domain and hence a field.
First, every nonzero proper ideal contains a product of nonzero prime ideals. Otherwise choose a maximal counterexample under inclusion, using the ascending chain condition. It cannot be a prime ideal. Choose with . The strictly larger ideals and each contain a product of nonzero prime ideals, allowing the empty product when necessary. Multiplying those products gives a product contained ina contradiction.
Next fix a nonzero prime ideal , choose , and choose a product of nonzero prime idealswith minimal. Because , primality and maximality imply for some ; reorder so that . Minimality provides with , taking the remaining product to be if . ThusDefine the fractional idealIt contains and . The ideal lies between and , so it is or . If it were , then . Applying the determinant trick to a finite generating set of an ideal for gives a monic polynomial over satisfied by . Since is an integrally closed domain, this would put in , a contradiction. ThereforeThis proves that each nonzero prime ideal is an invertible fractional ideal, independently of the desired factorization theorem.
Now take a nonzero proper ideal and a maximal ideal containing it. The ideal satisfiesThe first inclusion is strict: if , the same would stabilize , and the determinant trick would again force . Repeating gives a strictly ascending chain until it reaches ; the ascending chain condition ensures this happens after finitely many steps. The identities then express as a product of nonzero prime ideals.
For uniqueness, suppose . Since the right-hand side is contained in , some is contained in . Both are nonzero maximal ideals, so . Multiplication by cancels this factor. Repeat. A nonempty product of proper prime ideals cannot equal , so both products finish together. This proves uniqueness up to reordering, including repeated factors.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 22 1 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Let be the projective cubic of a Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve, allowing its elliptic-curve discriminant to vanish, and let . Use only the smooth locus of a variety : the singular point, if present, is excluded. For , intersect their chord with , using the tangent if and counting intersection multiplicity. If the third intersection is , define , wherein general Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve coordinates. The line through and gives this reflection. A vertical chord gives , and the tangent at meets three times at , so is the identity. The construction is symmetric in . It stays in the nonsingular locus: a line through a singular point has intersection multiplicity at least two there, and therefore cannot also contain two smooth intersections counted with multiplicity.
For the nonsingular case, prove associativity by transporting a known abelian group law. The Abel-Jacobi map of a genus-one curveis bijective over an algebraic closure. Indeed, the Riemann-Roch theorem in genus one says that every divisor class of degree one has a unique effective representative consisting of one point: existence follows from , and uniqueness follows because two distinct representatives would produce a degree-one map to the projective line, impossible for a genus one curve. Subtracting gives the claimed bijection.
Any line section represents the same divisor class as , including tangencies. Thus as divisors on an algebraic curve, while the vertical line gives . HenceAddition in the Picard group is associative, soThe chord-and-tangent group law is defined over , so the group operation restricts to the -rational points.
For completeness, a singular Weierstrass equation of an elliptic curve produces the smooth-locus group of a singular Weierstrass cubic, not an elliptic curve. Over an algebraic closure, its normalization of an algebraic curve is the projective line; deleting the two preimages of a nodal crossing gives the multiplicative algebraic group, while deleting the single preimage of a cusp gives the additive group. For example, on , the coordinate , with , makes the smooth-locus law addition. On in characteristic different from two, put and , with ; the chord relation gives , so the group law is multiplication of . A nonsplit node gives the corresponding form of the multiplicative algebraic group over . These descriptions also establish the singular-case group laws.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2014 iii Paper 22 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
We use two precise facts about the formal group of an elliptic curve. At a prime of good reduction, its kernel of reduction of an elliptic curve is identified by the uniformizer with the group . For odd this group is torsion-free. To see the second fact, the integral invariant differential of a formal group law has the form , with . Integrating constructs the formal logarithmIt is a group homomorphism to the additive group. For and ,when is odd. Hence the series converges and , so it is injective. The target has no nonzero torsion. Therefore reduction is injective on the entire rational torsion subgroup at an odd prime of good reduction, including its -primary part.
For the present elliptic curve, , so every odd is a prime of good reduction. If , the Legendre symbol of is . The values and cancel in the sum of the Legendre symbols of , yieldingThe rational torsion subgroup injects into each of these groups, so it is finite and its order divides every such .
For any odd prime , the Dirichlet theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions supplies infinitely many with and . Discard the finitely many dividing . Since , it cannot divide . Similarly choose , again avoiding ; then , so .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 4 18I Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Because has characteristic , the prime field lies in , andfor every . These are all roots. Moreover , so is a separable polynomial.
Let be the minimal polynomial of an algebraic element of over . Translation by sends an irreducible factor of to the irreducible factor . The additive group of therefore acts on the irreducible factors, and every orbit has size or . An orbit of size would already contribute to the degree- polynomial , forcing . Then , all roots lie in , and , contrary to the hypothesis.
Thus for every . If , comparison of the coefficient of in for gives times the nonzero leading coefficient, a contradiction. Hence , and since is a monic divisor of the monic degree- polynomial , we have . Thus is irreducible over .
All roots already belong to , so the splitting field isAs the splitting field of a separable polynomial, is a Galois extension. For each , irreducibility gives a distinct -automorphismThese exhaust the automorphisms. This is an Artin–Schreier extension, and
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 125 2 a Solution 2026-10-03
If , square-freeness gives the cuspidal reduction . Its nonsingular group is isomorphic to the additive group , so it is cyclic of order .
Suppose . The reduction is an elliptic curve. Since , is a quadratic nonresidue. Pairing with in the quadratic-character sum and usingshows that the two contributions cancel. Therefore . The three roots are distinct, so the full 2-torsion is rational. A cyclic group has at most two elements killed by , hence is noncyclic. Thus
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 4 3I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A cipher has perfect secrecy when the conditional probability of every plaintext given a ciphertext equals its prior probability: whenever . Equivalently, the plaintext and ciphertext are independent random variables.
Fix a ciphertext that can occur. Perfect secrecy requires every possible plaintext to remain possible after observing . For a deterministic decryption rule, two different plaintexts producing require two different keys, so the key space has cardinality at least that of the message space.
In a one-time pad, the message and key belong to the same finite additive group, the key is uniform and independent of the message, and encryption is . For every there is exactly one key , soindependent of . Bayes' theorem then gives , proving perfect secrecy.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 151 1 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let be a projective resolution of the trivial -module. The projective-resolution definition of group cohomology isThis is independent, up to a natural isomorphism, of the chosen projective resolution.
The degreewise natural isomorphismscommute with the coboundary maps. Taking cohomology proves that group cohomology commutes with finite direct sums:
Now restrict from to a subgroup . The group ring is free as a -module, so restriction carries free modules to free modules and projective modules to projective modules. Thus the restricted complex is a projective resolution of the trivial -module. For the coinduced module , the Hom functor adjunction for a coinduced module gives an isomorphism of cochain complexesExplicitly, a map is sent to ; the inverse sends a -linear map to . Taking cohomology proves Shapiro's lemma:
For the conjugation module of a group ring , the basis is the disjoint union of its conjugacy classes. Hence is the direct sum of the integral permutation modules on those classes. The class of a representative is the transitive -set , where is its centralizer. Since is finite, this permutation module is both induced and coinduced from the trivial -module . Applying group cohomology commutes with finite direct sums and Shapiro's lemma yields the group cohomology of a conjugation module:
The symmetric group has three conjugacy classes, represented by the identity, a transposition, and a three-cycle. Their centralizers are respectivelyFor any finite group acting trivially on ,because a group homomorphism sends an element of finite order to an element of finite order, while the additive group of the integers contains no nonzero torsion elements. ThereforeThe periodic resolution of a finite cyclic group alternates the maps and . After applying with the trivial action, these become alternately zero and multiplication by , provingCombining this calculation with the supplied gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 151 3 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For , the square-zero ideal condition givesThus the square-zero unit subgroup is abelian, andis a group isomorphism from the additive group of .
Use the specified ring isomorphism . For , choose a lift and define for . Two lifts differ by an element of , whose product with vanishes, so this is well defined. Right multiplication is handled identically. The two actions commute by associativity, making a bimodule. If lifts , then is a unit: a lift of makes both and elements of , hence units, and a ring element with both a left and a right inverse is invertible. Conjugation therefore definesChanging by an element of does not change this expression because . Moreover,so is an isomorphism of -modules for these conjugation actions.
Let be reduction on unit groups, and define as the inverse image of the distinguished subgroup . Every has a unit lift by the preceding argument, and the kernel consists exactly of the units congruent to , namely . Multiplication in therefore gives the group extensionChoose a set-theoretic section with . Its extension cocyclesatisfies the two-cocycle identity by associativity. A different section changes by a group coboundary, so second group cohomology classifies group extensions gives a well-defined classThe same construction for gives , an extension cocycle , and .
The answer to the final question is no. An abstract ring isomorphism need not carry the distinguished ideal to , need not induce the identity under the two chosen identifications of the quotient rings with , and need not induce the prescribed -module isomorphism . Hence it need not give an isomorphism of the two displayed group extensions, so it imposes no equality . That equality does hold if the ring isomorphism has all three compatibility properties, because it then carries one extension cocycle to the other up to a group coboundary.
Period group of a function 2026-10-14
Include zero when forming this set, even though a period of a function is normally required to be nonzero. For , is a subgroup of the additive group of the real numbers: composing two preserving shifts adds them, and reversing a preserving shift negates it. A constant function has period group . A nonconstant continuous real-valued function that is periodic has period group , where is its fundamental period.
Relevance of independent self-sums Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
If is -relevant to and are mutually independent copies, then is -relevant to . The entropy submodularity for three independent sums impliesand similarly for . The Entropic Ruzsa triangle inequality boundswhich proves the claim after addition.
Ring of integers Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-25
The ring of integers of a number field isIt is the integral closure of in . Its additive group is a free abelian group of rank , so an integral basis writes every element uniquely as with . Its field of fractions is .[ref]
https://www.jmilne.org/math/CourseNotes/ANT.pdf. Milne, Algebraic Number Theory, Chapter 2, rings of integers and integral bases
For , this gives ; for , it gives . The Gaussian integers give the corresponding example inside . The ring of integers is determined by the field, and need not equal for a chosen algebraic integer generator: in , the larger ring contains with index two.
This is the setting for divisibility, global units, and prime ideal factorization. A ring of integers is a Dedekind domain, so every nonzero proper ideal factors uniquely into nonzero prime ideals, even when unique factorization of elements fails.[ref]
https://www.numdam.org/item/BSMA_1877_2_1_1_207_1.pdf. Dedekind, Sur la théorie des nombres entiers algébriques, 1877, §25
Smooth-locus group of a singular Weierstrass cubic Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
For a singular projective Weierstrass cubic, its smooth locus of a variety contains the point at infinity and carries the chord-and-tangent group law. The singular point is excluded. Over an algebraic closure, a node gives the multiplicative algebraic group and a cusp gives the additive group. A node whose branches are not defined over the base field gives a nonsplit one-dimensional algebraic torus. This group is distinct from an elliptic curve, whose projective model is smooth.
Square-zero unit subgroup Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
If , then is an abelian subgroup of the unit group. Multiplication satisfies , and , so identifies the additive group of with .
Subgroup Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A subgroup is a subset of a group that is itself a group under the same group operation. It must contain the identity element of and be closed under products and inverse elements. Associativity is inherited from , so it needs no new proof. The whole group and the trivial group are always subgroups. A proper subgroup satisfies .
A useful single-condition test isTo see why it works, choose ; then . Taking gives every inverse element . Applying the test to and then gives . Conversely, every subgroup satisfies the test by closure under products and inverse elements. This also makes the additive version memorable: a nonempty subset of an additive group is a subgroup exactly when it is closed under differences. See McKernan's MIT lecture 2, Proposition 2.3, for the equivalent closure criterion.
For the square dihedral group above, is a cyclic subgroup: products add exponents modulo four, and . The smaller collections and are subgroups of group order two. But is not a subgroup, since lies outside it. A plausible-looking list of symmetries therefore need not constitute a complete collection of reversible operations.
Inside , the even numbers form a subgroup: is an even number. Its two cosets consist of the even numbers and the odd numbers, so its index of a subgroup is two. The parity group homomorphism has as its kernel of a group homomorphism. A subgroup can thus identify exactly which information a composition-preserving map forgets.
Subgroups also describe residual symmetry. In the group action of on the four vertices, the stabilizer subgroup of is : the diagonal reflection fixes that vertex, and the other six motions move it. Requiring a feature to stay fixed still leaves a group, because both composition and reversal preserve that requirement. This is why subgroups are useful for studying a group action one feature at a time.
Topological generator of the additive group of p-adic integers Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
An element topologically generates the additive group of exactly when , equivalently when is a p-adic unit. In that case its image generates every cyclic quotient .