The product formula says that every satisfies
First suppose that is an algebraic integer. Its principal ideal has the prime ideal factorization
Taking the ideal norm gives
On the other hand, the field norm is the product over embeddings, so
Equating these expressions proves the formula for algebraic integers. Every nonzero element of is a quotient of two algebraic integers, and multiplicativity completes the proof.
For the distinct complex embeddings of the number field, define the discriminant of elements of a number field by
The equality follows by multiplying the transpose of the embedding matrix by itself. Each field trace is rational: it is also the trace of the rational matrix of multiplication by on . Thus the determinant lies in . If the are algebraic integers, the products and their conjugates are algebraic integers, and so are their sums. A rational algebraic integer is an integer, hence all trace entries and their determinant are integers.
Write . The inclusion of the generated abelian groups makes an integer matrix. Its embedding matrix is the embedding matrix of the multiplied by . Taking squared determinants gives
For independent algebraic integers , choose an integral basis of . The same formula gives . If is nonzero and a square-free integer, the integer index must be one, proving that the form an integral basis.
Now put . Since has degree three, the monic polynomial
is its minimal polynomial of an algebraic element. The field norm is the negative of its constant term:
For the discriminant calculation, . In the basis , using , multiplication by this element has matrix
Thus the given derivative-norm formula gives . Since satisfies a monic polynomial with integer coefficients, are algebraic integers; the fact that a squarefree discriminant certifies an integral basis proves
Minkowski convex body theorem states that a centrally symmetric convex measurable subset of with volume greater than times the covolume of a full Euclidean lattice contains a nonzero lattice point. The equivalent closed-boundary form follows by compactness for compact convex bodies.
The set is centrally symmetric. It is convex because for , the triangle inequality gives . It is a diamond of area . For the embedded nonzero integral ideal , the given covolume is . Hence Minkowski convex body theorem applies when
For the resulting nonzero , write , . Then
Decrease to . A fixed slightly larger diamond contains only finitely many lattice points, so one nonzero recurs along a sequence of such values. Passing to the limit proves
Given a target ideal class , choose an integral ideal in . Since , the ideal is integral, belongs to , and has ideal norm
For , every ideal class thus has an integral representative of norm at most . The only possibilities are norms one, two or three. The prime two ramifies, giving the unique ideal of norm two . The element has field norm , so , making it principal. The prime three is inert because is an irreducible polynomial; its prime ideal has norm nine, so there is no ideal of norm three. Every possible small representative is principal, proving class number one for Q square root of fourteen. Therefore
The Dedekind factorization theorem says: if with integral, minimal polynomial of an algebraic element , and the rational prime does not divide , factor into distinct monic irreducibles over . Then the distinct prime ideals above are , with integer lifts , and
The index condition is part of the theorem and must be checked before applying it at a ramified prime.
For this cubic, is Eisenstein and has discriminant . We first verify . The square of the index divides 972, so only two and three can divide the index. If either prime divided it, the finite quotient group would contain an element of order , giving an integral element with digits , not all zero. Its field norm is
For , the numerator has valuation zero if , valuation one if , and valuation two if . For the same three cases, according to the first nonzero digit, give valuations zero, one and two. None gives an integer field norm after dividing by , contradicting integrality. Thus the index is one.
Multiplication by in the power basis, or the product over the three conjugates, gives . Define
Reduction of the cubic gives at two and three, at five, and at seven. The quadratic factor at five is irreducible since its discriminant is two, a nonsquare modulo five. Hence
The norms are respectively . Norms and reduction of the elements at those primes give
For example their absolute element field norms are ; each indicated prime divides the element by substitution in its residue field, and the product of the indicated ideal norms already equals that absolute field norm. Thus no additional factor or exponent is possible.
In the ideal of the specified quotient every prime exponent cancels:
Equality with the unit ideal implies that both and its inverse are integral, so . For the real root, . The numerator is negative and has absolute value less than two, while the denominator is greater than five. Thus , proving . Its field norm is , consistent with the ideal calculation.
Choose a nonzero integral ideal whose class is ; one can multiply the fractional inverse by a suitable nonzero integer to obtain such a . By the given bound choose with . Put . Since , multiplication by makes an integral ideal. Its class is , and multiplicativity of ideal norms gives
This proves the class representative bound without accidentally constructing a representative of the inverse class instead.
To determine the Ideal class group of Q of square root minus thirty-four, write . The given integral basis has discriminant , so the imaginary-quadratic bound is . Every class therefore has a representative of ideal norm at most seven, and factoring such representatives shows that the ideal class group is generated by prime ideals of ideal norm at most seven.
Two ramifies: let , with . Three is inert because is irreducible modulo three, so its prime ideal ideal norm is nine and supplies no small generator. At five and seven the roots are , so the primes of ideal norm five and seven are conjugate pairs. Set and . Their conjugates have inverse ideal classes. No new prime ideal has ideal norm four, since the only prime above two has residue degree one; six is not a prime power. Thus generate the ideal class group.
The element field norms and , together with reduction at the split primes, give
The ideal norm products verify both exponents. Consequently and , so the whole group is generated by and its order divides four. The class is not trivial: a generator would be an element of the ring of integers of field norm two, but has no integer solution. Since , its order is exactly two. Hence has order four and
For integral solutions of x squared minus two equals y cubed, the equation implies , so . If were even, then would be even and would be two or six modulo eight, whereas would be zero modulo eight. Thus and are odd. Also : otherwise , which is not a cubic residue modulo nine. Reducing modulo three then gives . Consequently
Put and . Its field norm is . The principal ideals and are coprime. Indeed a common prime ideal has underlying rational prime dividing . The displayed gcd excludes two and three, so both two and are invertible modulo that prime ideal. The difference therefore implies , contradicting .
Their product is , so unique factorization of ideals in a number field and coprimality imply for an integral ideal . In the given ideal class group of order two, implies . Hence with integers . Equality of principal ideals gives . The only units are , and both are cubes, so the sign can be absorbed into . Taking norms, and using , gives
The coefficient of gives . Eliminating with the field norm identity yields
The denominator is nonzero for integral . Polynomial division makes the integrality obstruction especially clear:
If is integral, the reciprocal must be an integer, forcing . The only integral possibility is . Then , the field norm gives , and the real coefficient in the cube gives . Both pairs directly satisfy the original equation. Therefore all integral solutions are
The set consists of the elements of integral over , meaning roots of monic polynomials in .
First prove the finite-module criterion for integrality in a slightly stronger form, for any nonzero finitely generated -submodule stable under multiplication by . Choose generators and write with integer coefficients. Multiply the vector equation by its adjugate matrix. This gives for every generator. Some generator is nonzero and is a field, so . The polynomial is monic with integer coefficients, proving integrality of . This implication needs no prior closure theorem for .
Conversely, if satisfies a monic polynomial of degree , then is generated by and is stable under . Every also maps into itself because it is an integer polynomial in ; the finite-module criterion for integrality just proved makes every such integral. Thus this really lies in , proving the stated equivalence without circularity.
For two integral elements , the module spanned by for , contains one, is finitely generated, and is stable under both elements by their monic equations. It is therefore stable under and . The finite-module criterion for integrality proves that both are integral. Negatives follow by replacing a multiplication matrix by its negative, and are integral. Hence .
The integral basis of the cubic field of discriminant minus 140 can be obtained as follows. For the specified field, Eisenstein at two makes irreducible, and is integral because the polynomial is monic. The discriminant of a monic cubic is , so
Here is the printed notation for the signed discriminant, namely the square of a Vandermonde product of the conjugates; that product need not be real.
Suppose is integral with the prescribed binary coefficients. The root traces give , , . Thus must be an integer, forcing . If , nonzeroness of the coefficient triple forces , giving . If , multiply by and use :
Closure of the ring then again gives .
But , so the field norm of is . The field norm of an algebraic integer is an integer, proving . Dividing the defining cubic by gives . Thus cannot be integral either.
Finally the discriminant-index formula for an integral lattice says . The square of the integer index divides , so its only possibilities are one and four, giving index one or two. If the index were two, a nonzero coset would supply an integral element after reducing coefficients modulo two, with a nonzero binary triple. The preceding argument would force the impossible integrality of . Hence
For nonzero ideals, unique factorization of ideals in a number field converts to . Coprimality says at most one of the first two exponents is positive, so each is divisible by three. Dividing its exponents by three constructs ideals whose cubes are . If a zero ideal is allowed, coprimality forces the other ideal to be the whole ring and the conclusion is immediate with the zero ideal as its own cube.
To compute the Ideal class group of Q of square root minus thirty, put . The ring of integers is , with discriminant . The given Minkowski bound for ideal classes is . Hence the ideal class group is generated by prime ideals with ideal norm below seven. The rational primes two, three and five all ramify, giving unique prime ideals , , with and ideal norm . There is no additional prime ideal of ideal norm four because two ramifies with residue degree one; six is not a prime power. Thus these three classes generate and each has order at most two.
As , unique factorization of ideals in a number field gives , so their three classes multiply to one. None is principal: a generator of one would be an integral element of field norm equal to two, three or five, and none of those field norm equations has integer solutions. The three nontrivial classes are therefore distinct, with the third the product of the first two. Hence
To rule out integer solutions, suppose . Necessarily . If a prime divided , then reduction modulo would force . Because thirty is squarefree, the valuation of at that prime would be exactly one, while that of is a positive multiple of three, a contradiction. Thus .
If a prime ideal divided both and , it would divide their difference and their product . Its underlying rational prime would divide , hence divide thirty, and would also divide . This contradicts the gcd just proved, so the two ideals are coprime. Their product is , so the first part gives for an ideal .
In a ideal class group of exponent two, forces . Thus with . Equality of principal ideals gives for a unit . The only units are , since forces , ; both signs are cubes and can be absorbed into the generator. Comparing the coefficient of after cubing now gives
which is impossible modulo three. Therefore
An integral basis is a -basis of the ring of integers ; its elements also form a -basis of .
To prove existence, first multiply the elements of a rational basis by suitable nonzero integers to obtain an integral rational basis . Put . The trace pairing is nondegenerate in characteristic zero, and the matrix has integer entries and nonzero determinant . If is integral, all are integers, so . The adjugate formula gives . Consequently
A subgroup of a free abelian group is free, and these inclusions force rank . A -basis of is therefore an integral basis.
Now put and . The polynomial is irreducible by Eisenstein at any prime dividing the squarefree , except for , where is Eisenstein at . Thus and . Every has the unique form with . The nontrivial -automorphism sends to , so an integral has integral conjugate . Relative trace and norm of integral elements are integral in . Applying them to and taking the trace of gives
The power basis has discriminant
Indeed, the resultant of and is ; the discriminant sign factor is . By the discriminant-index formula for an integral lattice, a prime dividing must divide .
No odd prime can divide this index. The Eisenstein equation gives , while has nonintegral field norm for and : its -adic norm valuation is . If were integral, multiplication by first forces ; subtracting and multiplying by forces . Continuing forces all coefficients divisible by . This excludes an index element of order .
To exclude , any index element of order two would be represented by an integral
with integers not all even. Here and . The integrality of forces
Since , the first congruence implies have the same parity. If both were odd, the second would require , impossible. Hence are even. The second congruence then forces to have the same parity, while the first forces even. Thus are even too, a contradiction. Therefore the index is one and
For the last request, let and take . It satisfies , and hence
This monic integer polynomial proves integrality. Its coordinates in the rational power basis have halves, so . Also with a nonzero coefficient in ; if were in that quadratic field, then would be too, contradicting degree four. Thus it meets both exclusions.
The product of ideals consists of finite sums with , . Ideal divisibility means for an integral ideal ; in this ring it is equivalent to . The ideal norm is , equivalently its additive lattice index.
If the prime ideal divides but does not divide , choose . For every , , so primality gives . Thus , proving .
Every nonzero proper ideal is contained in a maximal ideal , which is prime. Then , so . Norm multiplicativity gives because . Induction on the positive integer gives a prime-ideal factorization, ending at norm one. For uniqueness, a prime in one factorization divides some prime in the other. Every nonzero prime ideal is maximal, since its quotient is a finite integral domain and hence a field. The two primes therefore coincide. Cancel that common factor using the permitted cancellation law, and continue. This proves uniqueness up to order.
The finite additive group has order , so that integer annihilates the class of . Therefore
In particular an ideal of norm contains . Such ideals correspond to certain additive subgroups of the finite group , so there are finitely many. Finiteness of these quotients follows from an integral basis; a nonzero ideal contains a nonzero principal ideal, whose index is the absolute field norm of its generator.
For the computation put . The Kummer-Dedekind theorem says that when does not divide the power-basis index, a factorization gives , with each factor having norm . The given full power basis has index one. Since and ,
Here and . A prime ideal dividing an ideal of norm lies above or , and these are all the prime ideals above them. Unique factorization and norm multiplicativity therefore leave exactly
They are distinct by their prime-ideal valuations, and each has norm .
The polynomial is irreducible by Eisenstein's criterion at , so . Its constant coefficient gives the field norm
The defining equation gives
If and , then
has -adic valuation . It is not an integer. The norm of an algebraic integer is an integer, so is not integral.
Suppose now that is integral. Multiply it by . All terms except are integral, since their powers of are at least . Thus this remaining term is integral, and the norm obstruction forces . Subtract the integer from . Multiply the remainder by ; the only term of exponent below is , so . Continuing in this way proves for every . Therefore
For the same conclusion follows directly from the norm obstruction with .
For , the field norm maps the nonzero elements onto : the multiplicative group of a finite field is cyclic, and the power has image of order . The field trace is also onto. Indeed it is an -linear map into , and is not zero because its polynomial has degree and cannot vanish at all field elements. Consequently is onto whenever .
Ring of integers of a quadratic field Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a square-free integer, and let be the associated quadratic field. Then
The pair is an integral basis. The field discriminant is in the first case and in the second. This statement requires to be a square-free integer: for example, but omits .[ref]
For , the integral basis is , and the field discriminant is . For , it is with , and the field discriminant is . The identity makes closed under multiplication. Since , the smaller order in a number field consists precisely of with even . This computes its index two and shows concretely why adjoining a square root does not always supply every algebraic integer.
In this second integral basis, the field norm is
In particular, and : the extra algebraic integer is also a unit. The units of the quadratic field Q square root of five describe all its powers.
Ring of integers of Q of square root two 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.
For a finite unramified extension of non-Archimedean local fields, the field norm on residue units is surjective: on a cyclic group of order it is exponentiation by and has image of order . For a common uniformizer and , expansion of the conjugate product gives
The field trace of a finite finite field extension is onto: its polynomial is nonzero of degree below , so defines a nonzero linear map to the base field. Lift a residue norm and correct successively with elements of . The infinite product converges by completeness, and its norm is the prescribed unit. This argument also works in positive characteristic and when divides .
Let satisfy Eisenstein's criterion at a prime number , and let be a root. Then
Indeed, is an algebraic integer, whereas for and the field norm of has -adic valuation , so that element is not integral. If is integral, multiply it by . Every term except is integral; thus . Subtract , multiply the remainder by , and continue to obtain for every . Hence there is no element of order in the finite group , proving the claim. The result concerns the Eisenstein prime only: other primes may still divide the index.
Unbounded element orders in imaginary quadratic ideal class groups Created 2026-10-25 Updated 2026-10-31
For every positive integer , some imaginary quadratic field has an ideal class of order of a group element greater than . Specifically, take a prime number with . In , the Dedekind factorization theorem gives , with distinct prime ideals and of ideal norm five. If for , the field norm equation forces . Then is even and , contradicting unique factorization of ideals in a number field. Thus has order of a group element greater than . The existence of suitable follows from Dirichlet's theorem on arithmetic progressions.
For an unramified extension of non-Archimedean local fields, let generate its cyclic Galois group. The ordinary Hilbert theorem 90 supplies with . A common uniformizer gives , retaining the same quotient because fixes . The reverse implication follows by telescoping the field norm.
Unit from norm one or minus one Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a number field and an algebraic integer , the criterion is
Here the absolute field norm means the field norm down to ; its absolute value is one. Necessity follows from with both factors integers. Conversely, multiplication by on an integral basis is a matrix with integer entries and determinant . Its inverse also has integer entries, and applying that inverse to gives . The integrality hypothesis matters: has field norm one, but is not in .
In , the criterion becomes . Thus and are again algebraic integers. These units produce infinite families of solutions to the Pell equation.
For a finite extension of local fields with normalized discrete valuations, the field norm satisfies the displayed equality. The extended absolute values on a field of all conjugates agree, so . Using and gives the equality. Thus the field norm is a unit precisely when the original element is a unit.