Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 81 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a direct check of unramified behavior, the cyclotomic polynomial divides . Modulo , the latter has derivative and has no common root with that derivative. Thus is separable, so does not divide its polynomial discriminant. The field discriminant divides this polynomial discriminant, and therefore is unramified in . The Frobenius automorphism satisfiesIndeed its residue action is seventh powering. The reduced th roots of unity are distinct because , so the residue congruence identifies the exponent uniquely modulo .
The Galois group is , of order . Since , but . Consequently the Frobenius automorphism has order four. An unramified decomposition group is generated by that element, and the orbit-stabilizer theorem givesThere are therefore five primes above , each with residue field .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 81 2 Solution 2026-10-14
Let be a finite Galois extension, choose a prime ideal above , and write and for the residue fields. The decomposition group and inertia group areThe Frobenius automorphism on the finite field is . Its inverse image defines a distinguished coset in ; a Frobenius element is a lift of that coset. At an unramified prime, and the lift is unique. Changing the prime above conjugates it, so a Frobenius conjugacy class is intrinsically attached to . These are arithmetic Frobenius conventions.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 81 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
There is no infinite component in the modulus . The ordinary ideal class group of is trivial, and its unit group is . The ray class exact sequence therefore givesConcretely, a fractional ideal prime to has a rational generator with . Reducing modulo is well-defined up to multiplication by the units . Its ray class is trivial precisely when one of the two generators is congruent to one. Thus the quotient has the two classes and . No positivity restriction is imposed on a generator.
To identify the corresponding field, put . The maximal real subfield of the fifth cyclotomic field is fixed by complex conjugation, the element of . For a prime , the Frobenius automorphism of is . Its restriction to thus corresponds exactly to the residue class of modulo . Multiplicativity extends this to the Artin reciprocity map on all fractional ideals prime to , whose kernel is exactly . Its field discriminant also confirms that is unramified outside ; moreover is a totally real number field. The uniqueness in the Main theorem of class field theory now gives
Including the real place changes the ray class group: a principal generator must then be positive as well as congruent to one. The residue and signature group of a modulus givesHere the isomorphism sends to . Consequently , of degree four. The finite modulus gives the real quadratic field; the modulus with the real place gives the full cyclotomic field. The printed finite-modulus assertion needs no correction.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 81 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
We prove the Dirichlet density form of the Chebotarev density theorem. Let be a finite Galois extension with Galois group , let be a conjugacy class in , and let consist of the unramified prime ideals of whose Frobenius conjugacy class is . The assertion isThe same result holds for any union of conjugacy classes, by addition. The following proof uses exactly the allowed one-dimensional Artin L-function behavior at and the permitted induction and Euler-product properties.
First determine the order of vanishing at for an arbitrary character of a representation of . The Brauer induction theorem supplies subgroups , linear characters of , and integers , possibly negative, such thatPut . Compatibility of Artin L-functions with induced representations and direct sums gives, initially for ,Each is a one-dimensional Galois representation for , so the stated analytic assumptions apply to every factor. A trivial contributes a simple pole; a nontrivial is holomorphic and nonzero at one. Thus the product is meromorphic near one andThe character inner product is . Applying Frobenius reciprocity to each induced term givesIn particular, a nontrivial irreducible character has order zero, so its Artin L-function is holomorphic and nonzero near one. For the trivial character, , the Dedekind zeta function of the base field , and its pole is simple. This argument establishes the behavior needed at one, not holomorphy everywhere for arbitrary Artin L-functions.
Next convert that order calculation into a prime sum. For an irreducible character , choose a unitary representation of dimension affording it, and choose a Frobenius automorphism at each unramified prime. The logarithm specified by the absolutely convergent Euler product gives, for real ,Only finitely many ramified primes occur. Their Euler-factor logarithms stay bounded near one, since the relevant eigenvalues have modulus one and . Also , so the contribution with is uniformly bounded for byConvergence follows, for example, from the convergent ideal series defining . ThereforeWriting , the order computation means , where is holomorphic and nonzero near one. Choose its local logarithm. Along the real interval approaching one, this and the Euler-product logarithm differ only by a fixed multiple of . ConsequentlyOnly the trivial irreducible character has ; all the others have .
Finally, character orthogonality makes the irreducible characters an orthonormal basis of class functions. For , the coefficient of in the class indicator is . HenceSum this identity over the unramified primes with weight . The finite character sum and the boxed estimates giveDividing by proves the asserted Dirichlet density. The same Euler-product calculation with gives , so using all primes as the denominator is equivalent. Finitely many ramified primes do not affect either limit. No prime-counting asymptotic or natural-density Tauberian step is required by this proof.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 28 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A set of prime numbers has Dirichlet density if the following limit exists:Equivalently, the denominator can be , since that sum is . Adding or removing finitely many prime numbers leaves the Dirichlet density unchanged.
Put and . This is the splitting field of , whose four roots of a polynomial are . The polynomial is an Eisenstein polynomial at , so . Since is contained in the real numbers, it does not contain , giving . Thus is a Galois extension of degree . Its Galois group is the dihedral group of order : the field automorphisms , and , satisfy and .
For an odd prime number , the condition means that the finite field contains all fourth roots of unity. Under this condition, is a quartic residue exactly when has a root in ; multiplying that root by gives all four distinct roots. Conversely, complete splitting of over gives both a fourth root of and a primitive fourth root of unity, so it also forces .
The polynomial discriminant of is . Hence every odd prime number is unramified in , and the root-splitting criterion is equivalent to its Frobenius automorphism acting trivially on all the roots. Since the roots generate , this is equivalent to the Frobenius automorphism being the identity, or to being a completely split prime of . The Chebotarev density theorem says that the unramified prime numbers with Frobenius conjugacy class have Dirichlet density . Here , so
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 2 18F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let be a primitive fifth root of unity. Over , the Frobenius automorphism acts by , so the splitting field of has degree equal to the multiplicative order of modulo . Its Galois group is generated by Frobenius and is cyclic. The possible orders are therefore for , for , and for .
Put . The polynomial satisfies the Eisenstein criterion at , so . Also . The intersection of these two fields has degree dividing both and , hence is . Since the splitting field is ,
Label the five roots by , . The Galois group acts through the affine group over a finite field:Its possible nontrivial cycle types are , , and ; in particular, no element has a three-cycle. By the Dedekind factorization cycle test, the reduction of modulo any prime therefore has no irreducible cubic factor.
The multiplier of the Frobenius element is . If or , then has order four; every affine map with this multiplier has one fixed point and one four-cycle. Hence is a product of a linear factor and an irreducible quartic. If , Frobenius is a translation : it is the identity when , giving complete splitting, and is a five-cycle when , giving an irreducible polynomial.
For an abelian extension of number fields, restriction to an intermediate field takes each Artin symbol to that of the smaller extension. For a finite base extension , restriction identifies with . At an unramified prime of above , its residue-field Frobenius restricts to the th power of the Frobenius automorphism at . Since , the group homomorphism property proves the displayed identity for fractional ideals supported over unramified primes.
Here and . The prime-to- roots of unity generate an unramified extension of degree equal to the multiplicative order of modulo ; for this degree is one. Indeed, their distinct residues lift uniquely by Hensel lemma, and the Frobenius automorphism acts by raising them to . The -power roots of unity generate a totally ramified extension, because the translated cyclotomic polynomial is Eisenstein. The two fields have trivial intersection and their compositum has the same residue degree as the prime-to- field, by unramified base change preserves total ramification. Thus total ramification is equivalent to .