Let , with , and . The extension is unramified quadratic, whereas is totally ramified quadratic over , by the Eisenstein polynomial . Also , so . The Hensel lemma gives with . Put ; then and . Consequently , defines an automorphism whose square fixes and negates . It generates the cyclic Galois group of order four. Its unique quadratic subfield is , which is unramified. A decomposition as an unramified field and a totally ramified field would require a totally ramified quadratic subfield, and therefore cannot exist.
Eisenstein generator of a totally ramified extension Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-14
A finite extension of complete discretely valued fields is totally ramified exactly when for a root of an Eisenstein polynomial over . In the reverse direction one may take to be any uniformizer of .
If and is a primitive cube root of unity, then and . The Eisenstein polynomial therefore presents the entire degree-six splitting field, and is a uniformizer. Its normalised valuation gives , and . The order-three automorphisms displace with valuation four, whereas transpositions displace it with valuation one.
Finiteness of fixed-degree extensions of a p-adic field Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-14
A p-adic field has only finitely many extensions of a fixed degree up to isomorphism. There are finitely many possible residue degrees and a unique unramified extension of each such degree. Over each maximal unramified subfield, a totally ramified extension is generated by a root of an Eisenstein polynomial. The coefficient space of these polynomials of fixed degree is compact. Hensel lemma and Krasner's lemma show that sufficiently close polynomials generate isomorphic extensions, giving a finite cover by neighborhoods of a constant extension type.
Let be coprime positive square-free integers, with . The displayed integral basis has discriminant . Both nonconstant generators are integral, and their products are integral linear combinations of the three basis elements. At a prime dividing , the cubic for is Eisenstein; at a prime dividing , the cubic for is Eisenstein. If , then , and a shift by or gives an Eisenstein polynomial at three. These local uniformizer generators show that the order is maximal at all primes dividing its discriminant; elsewhere the discriminant-index formula for an integral lattice already gives maximality.
In with , the Eisenstein polynomial gives and . The element has field trace zero, but valuation , so is not in the valuation ring. Cancellation in a field trace contrasts with the multiplicative test in unit norm detects units in a local extension.
The polynomial
splits into three linear factors over . Over it is an Eisenstein polynomial, so adjoining a root gives a totally ramified cubic extension. Its splitting field over has decomposition group and inertia group .
The original PDF has cube roots throughout this question; the ninth roots in the converted TeX are transcription errors. Put and . The given condition excludes the trivial cube case. Both generators are integral, because
Moreover
so is an order in the cubic field. The field traces of are zero, while . Thus the trace pairing matrix of this basis is
We must prove that this is the maximal order, not just compute the discriminant of a suborder. The discriminant-index formula for an integral lattice restricts any index prime to those dividing . If , the cubic for is Eisenstein at , while is a unit there and . If , use instead the Eisenstein polynomial for , and . In either case an Eisenstein generator is a uniformizer of the totally ramified local field and generates its full valuation ring. Indeed expansion in powers of that uniformizer using base residue representatives, and grouping powers modulo three, expresses every integral local element in its power basis.
These arguments also cover three when . If , every unit modulo nine has cube congruent to or . Therefore the condition implies : multiply a contrary congruence by the inverse of and use . Choose with . The polynomial
is Eisenstein at three, since its constant term is divisible by three but not nine. Its root again generates the full local valuation ring. There is no index prime left. We have proved the integral basis of a cubefree pure cubic field and the requested discriminant:
For write . Here and . The norm of is the determinant of its multiplication matrix, giving
In particular
An integral element of norm one has an integral inverse, by its monic characteristic polynomial. Here direct multiplication gives . Nontriviality also follows from linear independence of .
The signature is , so the Minkowski bound for ideal classes is
Every class therefore has an integral representative of norm at most eight. Its prime factors have norms at most eight, and lie above . Since the index of is one, reduction of gives their factorizations by the Kummer-Dedekind theorem. At two and three the polynomial is , so there is one prime of norm or , respectively. They are principal, because
At five the factorization is with the quadratic irreducible. The norm-five prime is because ; the norm-twenty-five prime is outside the bound.
At seven the roots are , giving three primes of norm seven. The elements and have norm seven and vanish at roots six and three, respectively; hence they generate and . Since , the remaining prime is principal too. Every prime which can divide a Minkowski representative is now principal, so
This proves class number one for Q of cube root six with all primes within the bound accounted for.
Let be a primitive nth root of unity. The cyclotomic polynomial is
Induction on shows that is monic with integer coefficients. Here is the essential irreducibility of cyclotomic polynomials argument. Let be the minimal polynomial of and let be a prime. If had a different monic irreducible polynomial , then . Reducing modulo gives , so and have a common factor. As , this would give a repeated factor of modulo , impossible because its derivative is . Thus is conjugate to . Every positive integer prime to is a product of such primes, so all primitive nth roots of unity are conjugate. Consequently
In particular the cyclotomic field is an abelian extension. Complex conjugation corresponds to ; for its fixed field is , the maximal real subfield, of degree .
The ring of integers is . One way to see that there is no missing index is to work at each prime . Write with . The prime-to- roots of unity have separable reduction; their local factors generate unramified extensions with full integer rings. Over each such factor, adjoining is generated by the Eisenstein polynomial , with uniformizer , and hence gives the full integer ring of that totally ramified factor. The coprimality of and means that generates both sets of roots of unity. Thus is maximal at every , proving the integral assertion.
The same local description computes ramification and splitting. For , the ramification index is one, the residue degree is the multiplicative order of modulo , and there are primes above . If , put ; then
where . Indeed, the prime-to- part is unramified, and the -power part is totally ramified by the preceding Eisenstein polynomial. Notice the exception : its ramification index is one, consistently with for odd . Thus finite ramification occurs only at the indicated conductor primes, with that exception.
We now prove cyclotomic Artin reciprocity over the rational numbers, using arithmetic Frobenius automorphisms. If and lies over , then Frobenius sends the reduction of to its th power. Distinct nth roots of unity remain distinct modulo , since has separable reduction. Hence the Artin symbol is exactly
Extend multiplicatively to the group of rational fractional ideals prime to . Such an ideal has a unique positive rational generator whose numerator and denominator are prime to . The formula is
Every unit residue modulo has a positive integer representative prime to , so this Artin map is surjective. Its kernel is precisely the subgroup generated by positive . Therefore
This proves the Artin reciprocity law for this extension, including its principal-ray kernel. The infinite component of the modulus records positivity and therefore the possible action of complex conjugation.
Expand the translated cyclotomic polynomial:
Every nonleading coefficient is divisible by , and the constant term is not divisible by . The polynomial is Eisenstein, hence irreducible. Its root is a uniformizer of , and the Eisenstein polynomial valuation criterion gives
Thus this local cyclotomic extension is totally ramified.
Realize the two-dimensional irreducible representation as the standard representation of the symmetric group on
with permuting coordinates. It is the complement of the trivial summand in the three-point permutation representation. For each prime the local factor of an Artin L-function is
where is the inertia group and Frobenius means any lift of the residue-field Frobenius automorphism. On the lift is independent of that choice. At an unramified prime, put . The Local Artin factors of the standard representation of S3 are
The polynomial discriminant of is , so only can ramify in its splitting field. For , the squarefree factorization of modulo determines the Frobenius cycle type on its roots.
At ,
The quadratic is irreducible, so Frobenius is a transposition and
Thus , and . At ,
The quadratic discriminant is , a nonsquare, so this is again a transposition. Consequently and .
At , the possible cubes are , so has no root modulo . Being cubic, it is irreducible; Frobenius is a three-cycle. Therefore
and .
The ramified factor at must be computed on inertia group invariants. Write and set . Using gives
The Eisenstein polynomial over has degree six, so is a totally ramified degree-six subfield of . The latter has degree at most , so the fields agree. This Eisenstein sextic presentation of the splitting field of X3 minus 3 over Q3 shows . Since the only permutation-invariant vectors in have all coordinates equal, their intersection with is zero. Thus
In particular ; an unramified degree-two factor at would give the wrong coefficients.
Finally the Euler product makes its Dirichlet series coefficients multiplicative for coprime indices. Its constant coefficient is , and , . Every integer up to ten is now covered, giving
All the local fields here carry normalized discrete valuations. Write for the valuation ring, for its maximal ideal, and for its residue field. We use the basic degree identity for finite extensions of non-Archimedean local fields, with the ramification index and the residue degree.
First construct the maximal unramified subextension of a local field extension inside an arbitrary finite extension . Choose a primitive element of a field extension for the finite residue field extension . Let be its monic irreducible minimal polynomial of an algebraic element, of degree , and lift its coefficients to obtain a monic of the same degree. Finite finite fields are perfect fields, so . By Hensel lemma applied in , there is reducing to with . For we have
Every inequality is therefore an equality. In particular is unramified, , and is the minimal polynomial of an algebraic element .
If is unramified, then , so this construction gives . Taking supplies the required generator, and is a unit. Conversely suppose with integral and its monic minimal polynomial of an algebraic element satisfying . Its coefficients lie in , since all conjugates of an integral element are integral and is complete. In the constructed unramified extension the element is a simple root of . Hensel lemma in produces a root with residue . In both and lift this same simple residue root, so Hensel uniqueness gives . Thus , proving
For lifting residue-field embeddings of unramified extensions, use the generator and polynomial just constructed when is unramified. Given a -field homomorphism , its value is a simple root of . Hensel lemma in produces the unique root with that residue. The assignment defines a -field homomorphism ; it induces because generates . Conversely any such field homomorphism preserves the unique extended valuation, hence induces a residue field homomorphism, and its image of is uniquely forced by Hensel uniqueness. This proves the asserted bijection. The same proof only requires that be a non-Archimedean local field containing with its compatible valuation; its finiteness over is not essential.
Now set . The finite residue field extension has exactly automorphisms, cyclically generated by . Their unique lifts give automorphisms of . Consequently is a Galois extension, and reduction identifies its Galois group with that cyclic residue Galois group. Its generator is the arithmetic Frobenius:
For the compositum, choose a uniformizer of the totally ramified extension . The Eisenstein generator of a totally ramified extension characterization, proved in the next solution, says that and its minimal polynomial of an algebraic element is Eisenstein over . A uniformizer of remains a uniformizer in the unramified extension . All its Eisenstein coefficient conditions therefore remain true over . Thus the same Eisenstein polynomial is irreducible over and generates as a totally ramified extension. This proves is totally ramified, of degree .
Here is an explicit example showing that the converse decomposition of an arbitrary extension can fail. Take and with . Since is irreducible and separable modulo three, the degree and residue-degree argument above shows that is unramified quadratic. Put
The element is a unit in , so is Eisenstein over . Hence , , and . Moreover gives , with
We verify its Galois group, since that is what rules out a totally ramified complement. By Hensel lemma there is with : the residue root of is simple modulo three. Set . Then
The assignments and respect the defining relation, because . They therefore define a -automorphism of . Its square satisfies and , so has order four. There are thus four automorphisms of the degree-four extension, and
This is the cyclic quartic local extension without a totally ramified complement. Its unique quadratic subfield is , fixed by , and is unramified. If with unramified and totally ramified, then and . To obtain the full degree four both would have degree two, forcing to be a totally ramified quadratic subfield. There is no such subfield. Thus is the required counterexample.
Let , with normalized discrete valuations . Suppose first that is totally ramified, so . Choose a uniformizer of . The elements are linearly independent over : the nonzero terms in any proposed relation have valuations , distinct modulo , and a sum with a unique least valuation cannot vanish by the ultrametric inequality. Hence , proving .
Extend to an algebraic closure with values in . Every conjugate of has valuation , by uniqueness of the extended valuation on finite extensions of the complete field . In its monic minimal polynomial of an algebraic element , the coefficient is a sum of products of conjugates, counted with multiplicity. Thus for , so every nonleading coefficient is in . The constant coefficient is the product of all conjugates, so has valuation exactly one. This proves that is an Eisenstein polynomial. This argument also works for inseparable finite extensions, since the conjugates can be counted with their multiplicities.
Conversely let be an Eisenstein polynomial of degree , with root and . The Eisenstein criterion proves irreducibility. For completeness, monic factors would have integral coefficients; their reductions would be positive-degree powers of , so both constant coefficients would be divisible by the uniformizer of , contradicting . To determine the root valuation, put in the extended valuation. If , the leading term is the unique term of least valuation; if , the leading term again has uniquely least valuation zero. Both are impossible. If , every nonconstant lower term has valuation at least . Cancellation in therefore requires the leading term and constant term to have equal valuation:
Since and is a positive integer, . The opposite inequality follows from . Hence , , and . We have proved both the equivalence and the uniformizer assertion:
Now take with and . The translated cyclotomic polynomial is
In characteristic , putting reduces this to . Its constant coefficient over the integers is . It is therefore Eisenstein at , of degree . Consequently is totally ramified of degree , with uniformizer . If , the field is simply , a trivial totally ramified extension.
For a general positive integer with , the field generated by the prime-to- root of unity is unramified. Indeed has distinct roots modulo . In a finite unramified field whose residue field contains those roots, Hensel lemma lifts all of them uniquely. Reduction preserves their orders: a prime-to- root reducing to one must itself be one, by Hensel uniqueness at the root one of . The arithmetic Frobenius therefore acts as , and the extension degree is the multiplicative order of modulo , with degree one when .
The identity
follows by taking powers of a primitive nth root of unity and using the coprimality of in the opposite direction. The prime-to- field is unramified and the -power field is totally ramified; unramified base change preserves total ramification proves that their compositum has the same residue degree as the prime-to- field. Thus the total ramification criterion for local cyclotomic extensions gives the full classification:
This includes trivial extensions when . For only is possible.
For a finite totally ramified Galois extension with Galois group , define its lower ramification numbering by
Here is the inertia group, which equals , and is the wild inertia group. For a uniformizer the condition is equivalent to . To justify this uniformizer criterion for lower ramification groups, expand every as a convergent series with the coefficients chosen from representatives of in . Such an expansion is obtained by successive subtraction of a residue representative and division by , since total ramification gives . The automorphism fixes each , and is divisible by . Thus the required valuation bound for implies it for every , including the limit by completeness.
For , all primitive conjugates lie in and the Eisenstein degree is . Hence
If , put , so . The element is a primitive th root of unity. Applying the already proved uniformizer result to its field, and multiplying its valuation by the ramification index of over that field, gives
The identity automorphism has infinite valuation. Therefore the lower ramification filtration of a prime-power cyclotomic extension is explicitly
The order of the middle group is . At odd , has order ; at , the condition is automatic, so when . The case has trivial Galois group, and the displayed formula remains valid. For all groups are trivial. The valuation calculation also provides the upper ramification numbering, if desired, by integrating the reciprocal indices with the Herbrand function; no change of numbering is implicit in the displayed answer.
Fix a non-Archimedean local field , write , and use the arithmetic Frobenius normalization throughout: a uniformizer maps to the automorphism inducing on the maximal unramified extension. The Local Artin map, or local reciprocity map, is the canonical continuous group homomorphism
where is the maximal abelian extension inside a fixed algebraic closure with its separable part understood. Its finite projection to every finite abelian extension is onto and has kernel exactly the norm subgroup of a local field extension:
In particular, the quotient has order . This is how local class field theory turns abelian extension problems into computations inside a multiplicative group.
One precise definition of the finite reciprocity map uses the cup-product construction of local reciprocity. For a finite Galois extension with group , the local fundamental class is specified by local Brauer invariant . Cup product gives an isomorphism
The finite Local Artin map is its inverse, composed with the quotient map from . For abelian the target is itself. Taking the compatible inverse limit over finite abelian extensions defines .
The essential inputs to this cohomological construction have concrete arithmetic content. The local Brauer invariant identifies with ; restriction to multiplies the invariant by , so its kernel is cyclic of that order and has the distinguished generator . For every subgroup , Hilbert theorem 90 gives , while the same invariant calculation over the fixed field gives cyclic of order . These are the hypotheses of the algebraic cup-product isomorphism in Tate cohomology of a finite group. It is obtained by dimension shifting in group cohomology with a projective resolution of the trivial module and the extension representing the fundamental class. Thus the norm-kernel statement comes from the degree-zero definition of Tate cohomology of a finite group, rather than from an arbitrary assignment of an automorphism to each element. In an unramified extension of degree , the fundamental class is the cyclic algebra with arithmetic Frobenius generator and parameter a uniformizer; the isomorphism sends that Frobenius to the class of the uniformizer. This explains the chosen sign of reciprocity.
Several properties follow immediately from this construction. If are finite abelian extensions, restricting to gives . The Local Artin map is therefore compatible with the finite projections defining its infinite target. For any finite separable extension and , its norm compatibility is
Here is abelian, so the displayed restriction makes sense. An outline of the compatibility proof is to use the corestriction map in group cohomology: on multiplicative coefficients its degree-zero map is the norm. The cup-product projection formula, together with restriction and corestriction of the local fundamental class, gives exactly the commuting reciprocity diagram. The compatibility is an arithmetic instance of the functoriality of the cohomological definition.
The Local Artin map has dense image, because every finite abelian quotient receives a surjective map. Its kernel is trivial, and it extends to an isomorphism
where this profinite completion uses the open finite-index subgroups of the topological multiplicative group. The original map is generally not onto: on the unramified quotient it sends the integer valuation into , rather than producing every profinite integer. Its units map onto the abelian inertia group. For a finite abelian extension, the corresponding unit image is its inertia group, while the valuation accounts for its residue extension. Indeed , so the valuation quotient has order ; the full norm quotient has order , leaving unit image of order . Since unit images act trivially on the residue field, they give precisely the inertia group. More finely, the image of the higher principal-unit group in a finite abelian extension is its rth upper ramification group, for each integer . The use of upper ramification numbering is essential for compatibility with quotients.
The existence theorem of local class field theory states that every open finite-index subgroup is for a unique finite abelian extension . Inclusions are reversed: larger extensions have smaller norm subgroups. In the established reciprocity isomorphism, the proof is simply to take the fixed field of the open subgroup corresponding to . Conversely a finite extension gives an open kernel of a finite continuous projection. Uniqueness follows because that kernel specifies its fixed field. The substantive existence problem is therefore to prove that the reciprocity isomorphism realizes all open finite-index subgroups; it is not just this final fixed-field argument.
The Lubin–Tate description of local reciprocity provides an explicit route to that existence problem. Choose a uniformizer and a Lubin–Tate series , with its associated Lubin–Tate formal group . Solving successively by total degree constructs the law with linear part ; the analogous equations construct the endomorphisms with linear coefficient . The congruence supplies the divisibility needed at each step. These endomorphisms satisfy and make the torsion an -module.
If denotes the rfold iterate, the primitive level-r Lubin–Tate torsion points are roots of
Reduction modulo is , and the constant term is , so this is an Eisenstein polynomial. Its roots therefore generate a totally ramified extension of degree . A primitive point generates the entire torsion module, and all points are its images under the integral convergent endomorphisms . The torsion field is therefore a Galois extension of . The action map into is injective, and the computed degree equals the order of this unit group, proving it is an isomorphism. Passing to the inverse limit gives for the Lubin–Tate tower .
The unramified tower and are linearly disjoint field extensions: a finite common subextension would be both unramified and totally ramified, hence trivial. The Lubin–Tate description of local reciprocity on their compositum is
The inverse on the unit action goes with the arithmetic Frobenius convention; changing to geometric Frobenius inverts the whole reciprocity map. The reciprocity theorem identifies this explicit action with the finite cup-product maps, independently of the chosen uniformizer. Its proof compares the fundamental class with the norm relations between consecutive torsion fields. The construction makes the possible finite kernels concrete: on the compositum of the degree-d unramified field with the kernel is
These subgroups are cofinal among open finite-index subgroups. Indeed any such contains for sufficiently large , and contains for some positive , since the class of in has finite order. Taking the appropriate fixed subgroup in this explicit finite compositum realizes . This proves the open-subgroup part of existence once the norm compatibility of the explicit and cohomological constructions is established. Together with the finite reciprocity maps it also shows that .
As a direct check, on a finite unramified extension the construction reduces to
The earlier elementary unit-norm proof shows its kernel is exactly . At , the Lubin–Tate cyclotomic example takes and . Its torsion is , so a unit acts by . These examples exhibit both the valuation and unit parts of local reciprocity with consistent signs.
False. This is an example of integral trace need not imply integrality. Take with , the splitting field of . Its two conjugates are , and its normalized discrete valuation satisfies , , by the Eisenstein polynomial criterion. For
the field trace is zero, but . Therefore is not in the valuation ring, despite having integral field trace. Cancellation in a sum of conjugates explains why a field trace test fails.
The polynomial is Eisenstein at every prime number , so a polynomial root generates a totally ramified cubic field . The splitting-field Galois group is a transitive subgroup of , hence or . Its polynomial discriminant is
The product of the three polynomial root differences is a square root of , transformed by the sign of the polynomial root permutation. Thus the group is exactly when is a square, and otherwise it is . In the latter case the splitting field is
Indeed adjoining one polynomial root leaves a quadratic factor, whose polynomial discriminant is , so the square root of supplies its remaining polynomial roots.
Suppose first that . The unit reduces to , and Hensel's lemma makes it a square exactly when is a square modulo . Quadratic reciprocity gives
If , the field generated by is already the cyclic splitting field, totally ramified of degree three. If , the nonsquare unit gives an unramified quadratic field . Since and have coprime degrees, . Its residue degree is at least two and its ramification index at least three; their product is six, so they are exactly two and three. Thus its inertia group is the normal inside .
In both cases the ramification index is three and is not divisible by . The wild inertia group is trivial, so all positive lower groups are trivial. As a different check, has valuation two in when , agreeing with tame different exponent .
For the polynomial discriminant is , which is nonsquare. Hence . The quadratic subfield can be written with . It is ramified of degree two, by the Eisenstein polynomial . Together with the totally ramified cubic field this forces to be divisible by both two and three. Since , the splitting field is totally ramified. In its normalized valuation,
All differences between distinct polynomial roots have the same valuation, since permutes the polynomial root pairs and preserves the absolute value on a field. Also
has valuation six, so each polynomial root difference has valuation three. A nonidentity three-cycle fixes , and therefore
The transposition fixing negates , so sends to and has displacement valuation . The other transpositions have the same value by conjugacy. The uniformizer criterion now determines every group:
For the wild case the different exponent is . Independently, the cubic subfield has different exponent , and the quadratic extension is tame with exponent one. The tower formula gives , confirming the filtration. Its positive upper break is , because . This completes ramification of the splitting field of X3 plus pX plus p for every odd prime number.
The polynomial is an Eisenstein polynomial at , so it is irreducible and . Its polynomial discriminant is
One must remove the index at before using this as the field discriminant. Put . Direct reduction using gives
Thus is a ring finite over , so its elements are integral. Its basis has discriminant of elements of a number field . The discriminant-index formula for an integral lattice says , so only could divide the remaining index.
We use these standard different ideal facts: the norm of the different is the absolute field discriminant; its localization is the local different; an unramified prime has different exponent zero, and a tamely ramified prime of ramification index has different exponent . The Eisenstein polynomial at gives total ramification of degree three, which is tame because . Its contribution to is therefore two. This excludes a further index factor , proving and .
Since the index is prime to and , Dedekind factorization theorem applies at both primes. Modulo , , giving a single prime with residue degree one and ramification index three. Modulo ,
Thus has residue degree one and ramification index two; the other prime over is unramified. Both ramified primes are tame. No other prime ramifies because none divides . Consequently