Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 123 1 Solution 2026-09-28
Write . The field trace gives a nondegenerate -bilinear trace pairingThe inverse different, or codifferent, is the trace-dual latticeIt contains , because the trace of an element integral over belongs to the integrally closed ring . It is stable under multiplication by : if and , then . Nondegeneracy of the trace pairing and finite generation of show that this trace dual is a finitely generated -module spanning . Therefore it is a fractional ideal of .
The discriminant ideal is locally generated bywhere is a local -basis of . Equivalently, it is the image of the determinant of the trace pairingThis formulation makes the definition independent of a basis, since changing a basis multiplies its discriminant by the square of the determinant of the change-of-basis matrix.
The asserted identity of ideals can be checked after localization at every nonzero prime ideal of . We may therefore assume that is a discrete valuation ring and choose a basis of . Let be its trace-dual basis, so ; this is a basis of . If , thenThus the determinant measuring the inclusion is . The determinant description of the norm of a fractional ideal consequently givesLocalization then proves the equality over the original Dedekind domain.
Finally, the determinant-of-pairing map identifies the invertible -module with the discriminant ideal. Hence in the ideal class groupup to the harmless inverse caused by the convention used to identify invertible modules with fractional ideals. In either convention the class is a square.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 136 1 a i Solution 2026-09-28
The inverse different isIt is an -submodule of . Choose an integral basis of a finite-index free submodule of . Nondegeneracy of the trace pairing gives a dual -basis , and the codifferent lies between two finitely generated full -lattices obtained from these bases. It is therefore a fractional -ideal.
Every algebraic integer has integral trace, so . Consequently its inverseis contained in . It is thus an integral -ideal, called the different ideal.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 136 3 b Solution 2026-09-28
Let be a root ofThe polynomial is Eisenstein at , so is totally ramified of degree three and . Its discriminant isIts odd valuation makes nonsquare in , so the Galois group of an irreducible cubic shows that the splitting field has Galois group . The quadratic extension obtained by adjoining is ramified, so is totally ramified. Thereforebecause the wild inertia group is the unique Sylow -subgroup of .
It remains to find the wild break. Sinceand is a unit, the different ideal of has exponent . The extension is a tamely ramified quadratic extension and has different exponent one. The different in a tower therefore gives different exponentOn the other hand, the different exponent from ramification groups iswhere is the last index for which . Thus , and