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 givesThis 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, giveThe 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