Use the simple-root form of Hensel lemma: if and satisfy and , there is a unique with and . More generally the same assertion holds over a complete discrete valuation ring, with its maximal ideal in place of .
Every nonzero 3-adic number has a unique expression
Indeed its normalized P-adic valuation fixes , and its unit residue modulo three fixes . Cubing is an automorphism on , so it remains to compute the cube map on the principal units.
For ,
Thus . Conversely, given , apply Hensel lemma to
Modulo three it is , and is always a unit. The residue root therefore lifts, giving with . Hence
This is the cube map on 3-adic principal units. Introducing is essential: applying simple-root lifting directly to would fail because its derivative is divisible by three at every unit.
The map induces an isomorphism , since multiplication adds the first principal-unit digits modulo three. The valuation factor contributes independently, so the cube-class group of the 3-adic numbers is
Explicit generators are the classes of and . Representatives are with . The class of is detected by valuation modulo three, and that of by its nonzero first principal-unit digit, so the two generators are independent.