For an odd prime , the matrix logarithm and matrix exponential are inverse maps between and . They imply that the th-power map carries bijectively onto . Direct multiplication gives , so the group is a powerful pro-p group. The quotient is the additive matrix space over , with constant index . The matrices topologically generate, by successive approximation through these quotients. The lower p-series is exactly , so the group is a uniform pro-p group and a torsion-free group. At the first congruence subgroup contains and is not uniform.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 2 4 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
A uniform pro-p group is a finitely generated powerful pro-p group whose lower p-series , has constant successive indices. For odd , the powerful pro-p group condition means , with closed generated powers understood. For it means . For finitely generated powerful pro-p groups, uniformity is equivalent to being a torsion-free group.
It is convenient to use general matrix size , then put . Let . The required kernel is , the inverse limit of its finite p-group quotients. For odd , the convergent matrix logarithm and matrix exponential seriesare inverse maps between and . The valuation bounds for ensure convergence and integrality. They give and hence a bijective power map : the unique root of is .
Direct matrix multiplication gives , so and it is a powerful pro-p group. MoreoverThe elements topologically generate: their th powers give all matrix basis directions in , since . Successive correction of each matrix entry, followed by completeness, approximates every element by words in these generators.
Its lower p-series is exactly and the indices are constant; thus the group is a uniform pro-p group. Alternatively, the logarithm excludes nontrivial p-power torsion. Setting gives a uniform pro-p group kernel of dimension and generator number , with indices . This is the odd-prime principal p-adic congruence subgroup is uniform result. The odd-prime condition matters: is nontrivial order-two torsion in .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 4 3 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
First, the images of span by the surjective group homomorphism in (ii). Part (i) identifies with , so the Burnside basis theorem givesThis proves generation by the indicated powers; it does not yet prove that an arbitrary product of powers is itself a power.
For that stronger assertion, let . Part (ii) supplies with . Suppose at some stage , where . Apply (ii) to the powerful p-group : its first two power layers are . We can therefore choose withThe preliminary power congruence gives . Replacing by improves the root by one layer. The lower p-series terminates, so finitely many corrections yield exactly. Every element of is a -th power in .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 4 3 Solution 2026-10-14
Throughout this question is odd, means the subgroup generated by the -th powers of elements of , and the commutator of group elements convention is . A subgroup is powerfully embedded in when . In particular is normal, since . A finite p-group is a powerful p-group when .
First put . It is normal in . By the reduction permitted in the question, it suffices to prove after factoring out . In that quotient, is central. For and , put . Then is central, and the elementary identity gives, by induction,Both and belong to , and divides because is odd. Hence . The subgroup is normal in , so the commutator identity extends this inclusion from the generating elements to every element of . Applying the allowed reduction proves is powerfully embedded in .
For , normality of gives . Its quotient by is cyclic. Modulo , the image of is central and the remaining generator is , so that quotient is abelian. ThereforeThus is powerful.
The lower p-series is , . For the later calculations write , so . Part (i) will show and . A useful power lifting in a powerful p-group congruence isIndeed, modulo the commutators are central, lie in and have exponent dividing . Collecting the copies of therefore gives only the correction , which is trivial. This argument also covers . The congruence is the reason roots and coordinates can be corrected one power layer at a time.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 4 3 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For each , the elementary abelian group is spanned by the images of . We construct exponents so that equals the ordered product to successively greater precision. Suppose this product agrees with modulo ; initially this is automatic for . Its error modulo can be expressed using the images of . Add the corresponding digits to the exponents . Since , moving each new factor past the other factors changes nothing modulo . The new ordered product therefore agrees with modulo . Termination of the lower p-series provesNo uniqueness of this factorization is asserted for a redundant generating tuple.
The printed converse is false without an additional condition. For any odd , take the Heisenberg group withEvery element is uniquely , with , so is a product of three cyclic subgroups. For strictly upper triangular, andin characteristic , including . Therefore , whereas . This finite p-group is not powerful, disproving the literal request in the authoritative PDF.
A precise nearby correction is the minimal cyclic factorization criterion for powerful p-groups: require a product of cyclic subgroups, where is the minimal generator number. To prove it, put and . The quotient has exponent and still has minimal generator number , because . Each cyclic factor has image of order at most , so . But by the Burnside basis theorem. Consequently , is an elementary abelian group, and . A product of exactly cyclic subgroups is powerful. A direct product of cyclic groups is also powerful, since it is abelian; neither stronger hypothesis appears in the printed converse.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 4 4 Solution 2026-10-14
Put and , where powers mean closed generated subgroups. The finite-quotient arguments of Question 3 pass to a powerful pro-p group: in particular is powerfully embedded, the power map is onto , andFor the root assertion, apply the finite result to every finite quotient and use the finite intersection property on the closed sets of possible roots in the compact group. Each is finitely generated by the appropriate powers of a finite generating tuple, and is finite and elementary abelian. Thus the are open. They form an identity-neighbourhood basis: in any finite continuous quotient their images form a terminating lower p-series, so some is contained in the kernel. In particular . Collection also givesOne can see the extra index directly by induction from : collect for . Its leading factor advances one layer, and the remaining iterated commutators, with their binomial coefficients, lie at least as deep. Products and limits preserve the inclusion. This is the usual strongly central property of the lower p-series.
A uniform pro-p group is a finitely generated powerful pro-p group for which all the indices equal . The preliminary congruence gives surjective linear mapsIf is uniform, these maps are bijective. If , write and choose the unique layer with . Bijectivity of and the power congruence imply , so . Thus the power map is injective. A finite-order element of a pro-p group has -power order; repeated injectivity of the power map excludes every nonidentity such element. Hence a uniform group is a torsion-free group.
Conversely, suppose some has a nonzero kernel. Choose with . At step , if the current satisfies , surjectivity of supplies withSet . The power congruence gives . Since the corrections tend to in the complete profinite group, the converge to , with and . In particular . A torsion-free group cannot have such an element, so every is injective and all layer indices are equal. This proves the root correction criterion for uniformity andFor a uniform group the power maps are continuous bijections , hence homeomorphisms. Their inverses define the unique roots used below. Comparison at the first differing layer also proves the power congruences in a uniform pro-p group:
The intrinsic Lie algebra of a uniform pro-p group has the same underlying set as , zero equal to the group identity, and operationsHere is the limit of integral powers approaching . The first root is taken in and the second in ; the commutator actually lies in . The following faithful algebra realization verifies convergence and the Lie algebra axioms, rather than assuming them as part of the definition.
Choose a minimal tuple of topological generators. The layer isomorphisms show that the images of are bases of . The ordered-coordinate argument of Question 3 therefore gives a continuous bijectionExistence follows by successive digits and compactness; uniqueness follows by the first digit at which the coordinates differ, because its images are linearly independent in the corresponding power layer. Thus this map is a homeomorphism.
Here are details of the norm needed on the group algebra. In put . Its elements have unique ordered expansions with . To verify this description, identify the ordered coordinates of with . Elements of the completed group algebra are integral measures on this space; their values on the binomial polynomials are precisely the coefficients . The finite-difference identity pairs the ordered monomial with this binomial polynomial as . The Mahler expansion of a continuous function therefore proves both existence and uniqueness of the measure with the specified coefficients. This also proves that the ordinary rational group algebra embeds in these expansions.
Choose and setThis defines the weighted group algebra of a uniform pro-p group. Its multiplication is submultiplicative in the valuation convention, . Indeed, has valuation ; collection of ordered coordinates gives the same lower bound for when . Interchanging two adjacent in a product introduces a correction coming from , of valuation at least . Iterating the interchange rule never lowers the total weight; the corrections have strictly increasing weight, so infinite collection converges. The same argument with -th powers showsThe equality follows from the first nonzero coordinate digit: its leading terms are , at least one with unit , and cannot cancel in the ordered expansion. Completing the rational group algebra in this norm produces a complete normed algebra in which embeds faithfully and with its original topology.
Since , the seriesconverge on the relevant balls in and are inverse there. Their convergence follows from and ; formal one-variable identities prove that they are inverse. Put and . The Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula in now givesbecause every term of degree at least two tends to zero after this rescaling. Similarly expansion of givesThe leading term is the indicated associative-algebra commutator and all terms of degree at least three tend to zero. These expressions are the logarithms of the unique roots in the intrinsic formulas. The image is compact and hence closed in , so both limits belong to , and the inverse logarithm takes the limits back to . Also . Consequently identifies the intrinsic operations with addition, scalar multiplication and commutation in . The Jacobi identity follows by expanding the associative products; thus is indeed a Lie algebra over .
The commutator roots in the intrinsic formula belong to , so their limit gives . Iterating the power congruence gives . Taking the unique roots shows that intrinsic addition modulo is the original group product modulo . Consequently is the original elementary abelian quotient , and the images of the form a basis. Successively removing digits expresses every element uniquely as an additive sum : existence uses completeness, while a nonzero relation would have a first nonzero digit contradicting the basis in . Hence is a free module of rank over the p-adic integers and is a powerful Lie lattice.
Conversely a powerful Lie algebra over p-adic integers, for odd , is a finite free -module with a bilinear alternating Lie bracket satisfying the Jacobi identity and . DefineFor completeness, integrality and convergence can be verified without guessing which individual denominators are units. In set . Then , so its integral universal enveloping algebra has an ordered basis by the Poincaré-Birkhoff-Witt theorem. Its coefficientwise -adic norm is submultiplicative, and consists of elements of valuation at least one. The homogeneous degree- terms in have coefficients of valuation at least : expand the logarithm, use on each nonconstant exponential factor, and on a product of such factors. Therefore evaluating degree on gives valuation at leastwhich tends to infinity and is at least two when . Each homogeneous term is a rational Lie polynomial by the formal Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula. The ordered enveloping-algebra basis shows that its intersection with is exactly , so the estimate places the sum in , with the non-linear part in .
Associativity follows from the identity in the completed universal enveloping algebra. Its identity is , its inverse is , and , since the bracket of with itself is zero. The same coefficient estimate for the group commutator puts it in . Conjugation in the BCH group is ; each term preserves , because each bracket adds a factor of and . Thus the submodules are normal subgroups for , their intersection is zero, and their finite quotients have -power order. Thus is a powerful pro-p group, withA module basis topologically generates this group: it generates the quotient , and successive power digits lift that generation through all . The BCH construction therefore gives a uniform pro-p group.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 iii Paper 5 3 Solution 2026-10-14
For a pro-p group, the lower p-series is the descending sequence of closed characteristic subgroupsThe bar means closure of the subgroup generated by the displayed powers and group commutators. Throughout this question is odd. For a finitely generated powerful pro-p group, group commutator collection gives , each is powerful, and . All these subgroups are open. A uniform pro-p group is such a group with all subgroup indices equal to . We use the standard powerful-group torsion criterion: a finitely generated powerful pro-p group is uniform exactly when it is a torsion-free group. For a uniform group of generator number , the indices are , and is a homeomorphism from onto .
We record explicitly the collection facts used for the operations below. With , one hasThe second statement is the power-congruence property: the th-power map is an isomorphism on adjacent uniform layers, and collection gives for . Thus the first nonzero layer of a difference moves down exactly one step under a th power. Iterating gives the asserted equivalence and also justifies taking roots of congruences. These facts follow from powerful-group group commutator collection, using divisibility by of and the successive-layer power isomorphisms; they are the uniform-group structure results being used here.
The transported addition on a uniform pro-p group isThe product is in and has a unique th root in . For the comparison at define . The numbered proofs below establish associativity, approximate commutativity and compatibility of these operations.
The intrinsic Lie algebra of a uniform pro-p group has underlying set , zero equal to the group identity, additive inverse , and operationsHere the group commutator is . For , is the limit of for integers ; the pro- topology makes it well defined. The addition sequence is Cauchy by the compatibility proved below. The group commutator estimate puts in , so its displayed root exists and lies in . Collection of group commutators shows that successive bracket approximants differ in layers tending to the identity, giving the other limit. The group commutator identities give additivity of the limiting bracket, and the Hall-Witt identity gives its Jacobi identity. Approximate commutativity makes limiting addition commutative. The resulting lattice is a free module over of rank , and .
A powerful Lie algebra over p-adic integers, in the convention relevant here, is a Lie algebra whose underlying module is finite free over and whose bracket satisfies . For the condition is instead . For odd , define multiplication on its underlying set by the convergent Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formulaAn iterated bracket of degree lies in . The BCH coefficient bound loses at most powers of , so all higher-degree terms are integral, and their valuations tend to infinity. This explains both convergence and why multiplying a lattice with small bracket stays inside the lattice. Formal associativity of BCH passes to the convergent series, the identity is , the inverse is , and every group power satisfies . The quotients by are finite p-groups. Hence the resulting compact group is a finitely generated torsion-free group and a pro-p group, and its group commutator lies in . Thus is a uniform pro-p group, with and successive index .
The standard uniform-group/Lie-lattice correspondence identifies these constructions as mutually inverse: and . To see why the inverse limits recover the lattice operations, the addition approximant for a BCH group is : its linear term is and every higher term tends to zero. Similarly its group commutator approximant has limiting term . In the other direction, a local logarithm in the complete normed group algebra identifies the intrinsic operations with algebra addition and commutator and identifies group multiplication with BCH; the uniform power maps extend the identification from a sufficiently small power subgroup to all of . Continuous group homomorphisms respect powers, unique roots and limits, while Lie algebra homomorphisms respect every BCH term, so the equivalence also preserves morphisms.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 5 3 Solution 2026-10-14
Here is odd. For a finite p-group, write . A powerfully embedded subgroup satisfies ; this also makes normal, since every conjugate of an element of differs from it by an element of . A powerful p-group is one with , namely one powerfully embedded in itself. Use and throughout.
The lower p-series is defined byEach quotient is an elementary abelian p-group, and . These are generated subgroups, without closure bars, because the group is finite.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 5 3 v Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Set and . The permitted power-embedding result, applied repeatedly, gives , and each is a powerful p-group. These subgroups eventually reach : if , its Frattini subgroup is proper. In fact these are the lower p-series layers, with their indices shifted by one.
For and , the commutator lies in , is central modulo , and has exponent dividing there. The class-two collection calculation from part (iv) therefore givesApplying part (iv) inside , whose third lower-series term is contained in , shows that the map is onto .
Given , first choose with . Suppose . Choose with . The displayed collection congruence then gives . Replacing by improves the approximation by one layer. Since the filtration on a group terminates, a finite sequence of corrections gives exactly. The reverse inclusion is the definition of . Hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 5 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The correspondence concerns uniform pro-p groups and powerful Lie lattices, with their natural morphisms. Put for odd and for . A powerful pro-p group is a pro-p group whose closed commutator subgroup lies in its closed -power subgroup. It is uniform when it is topologically finitely generated and all successive indices in its lower p-series are equal. Equivalently, a finitely generated powerful pro-p group is uniform precisely when it is a torsion-free group. A powerful Lie algebra over p-adic integers means a Lie algebra over that is free of finite rank as a module and satisfiesHere a Lie algebra over a ring is a module with an alternating bilinear Lie bracket satisfying the Jacobi identity. Finite freeness is an essential part of the lattice convention. The zero-bracket module satisfies the bracket inclusion but has torsion, and its additive group is not uniform. Thus allowing arbitrary torsion modules would make the categorical assertion false.
The basic structural facts behind the construction can be seen from the power layers. Write with . Collection for a powerful pro-p group givesFor odd , the power lifting is exactly the successive-correction argument of Question 3, followed by compactness; at the stronger fourth-power commutator condition makes the corresponding collection corrections work. The maps between successive layers are surjective linear maps. Uniformity makes their finite dimensions equal, so these maps are isomorphisms. Comparing the first layer in which two elements differ now shows that the power map is injective, while the power-set formula makes it surjective. Thus all the roots used below exist uniquely in the indicated layer. If lift a basis of , the images of form a basis of . Successively choosing their coefficients modulo gives the unique ordered expressionExistence follows by lifting one layer at a time and taking a limit; uniqueness follows by comparing the first nonzero coefficient layer. In particular and these layers form a neighbourhood basis. These are the power-layer and coordinate facts needed in the proof, rather than an assumption that an arbitrary pro-p group has unique roots.
On the underlying set of , set the additive zero to , the additive negative of to , and defineThe p-adic integers act through limits of integer powers in the closed cyclic subgroup generated by . In the second formula the product belongs to ; in the third the group commutator belongs to . The symbols and denote the unique group roots, not unrestricted division in a group. We next justify convergence and the Lie algebra laws together.
A useful concrete tool is a complete normed group algebra containing . In its completed group algebra, put . Ordered-coordinate uniqueness gives unique expansions with . To see why, first work modulo and : the ordered products of the with exponents below form the regular basis, and the change to the corresponding products of is triangular with diagonal entries one. Take inverse limits and then lift the coefficient digits successively in powers of . Define the weightIt is a genuine separated, submultiplicative weight. Indeed reordering produces a group-commutator correction in ; the binomial expansion of a th power gives that correction weight at least , so collection never decreases total weight. Also . Inverting and completing therefore gives a Banach algebra over . For , ordered coordinates showwith value infinity at . Thus the induced topology on is exactly its original topology. This construction supplies the ambient algebra without presupposing the uniform pro-p group and powerful Lie lattice correspondence. The weighted construction, including the case , is described in Equivariant D-modules on rigid analytic spaces, Section 6.5.
Since , the p-adic logarithm and p-adic exponential converge on the relevant balls in :The estimates and show that term weights tend to infinity. Formal substitution is legitimate there and proves that the two maps are inverse. They preserve the leading weight. In particular embeds the compact set homeomorphically into , and .
Put and . Expanding the convergent Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula in givesThe first expansion has linear part and all other terms have degree at least two in . The second has leading term and all remaining terms have degree at least three. After division by the displayed powers of , the extra factor of forces those errors to zero. The normalized expressions are logarithms of the unique roots already specified. Since is compact and closed in , both limits belong to . Scalar multiplication also remains in by continuity of powers. Consequently is a module over , closed under the associative-algebra Lie bracket . Bilinearity, alternation and the Jacobi identity follow by expanding products in the associative algebra . Transporting these operations back gives exactly above.
The commutator-layer inclusion places every normalized bracket root in . Since and this set is compact, passage to the limit proves . Addition modulo is the original multiplication modulo : collection shows , as the nonlinear errors lie at least one layer deeper. Thus has dimension , with basis . Given , write its residue as and repeat on . This iterative digit lifting converges because the remainders stay in the bounded compact set . It gives with . A nontrivial relation among the could be divided by the smallest power of among its coefficients, contradicting their independence modulo . Hence is free of rank , proving that it is a powerful Lie lattice.
Conversely, let be a powerful Lie lattice. In , defineThe formal Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula and its coefficient estimate are the algebraic ingredients used here. More precisely, the degree- component can be expressed as an integral Lie polynomial divided by a number of -adic valuation at most . One way to obtain this estimate is to bound the associative coefficients of and use an integral ordered basis of the free Lie algebra. The denominator bound , where is the base- digit sum, is at most . A precise primary reference for that denominator estimate is Smallest common denominators for the homogeneous components of the Baker-Campbell-Hausdorff series. A length- Lie bracket in lies in . Thus the degree- term belongs toThese exponents are nonnegative and tend to infinity; for they are at least one. This proves integral convergence, continuity and . Associativity follows from the formal identity in the completed universal enveloping algebra. Substitution of three elements is justified by the same valuation estimates, so the two associative expressions agree. The identity is , the inverse is , and because every nonlinear term involving only vanishes.
For powerfulness, formal conjugation givesThe difference lies in : its th term has valuation at least for . The group commutator is therefore . Its linear term is . Every nonlinear Lie term contains , since it vanishes when , and the extra divisibility makes all those terms lie in too. Hence . The ideals are open normal subgroups for , and their finite quotients have order . The group is consequently a pro-p group. Its power sets are exactly , its lower-series indices are constantly , and a basis of topologically generates it by the same successive digit lifting. The BCH group is uniform.
To check the inverse constructions, powers in the Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula group are ordinary multiples in . Thereforeand the similarly normalized group commutator tends to . The limit constructions recover the original Lie algebra exactly. In the other direction, the ambient Banach algebra construction gives , so the recovered operation is the original multiplication of .
Finally a continuous group homomorphism between uniform pro-p groups preserves integer powers and powers with exponents in the p-adic integers, preserves the unique roots in the power layers, and commutes with their limits. It therefore becomes a linear Lie algebra homomorphism. Conversely a linear Lie algebra homomorphism between finite free modules is continuous and preserves every term of the convergent Baker--Campbell--Hausdorff formula, hence is a continuous group homomorphism for . The constructions preserve identity maps and composition, and the inverse identifications are natural. They are mutually inverse functors, giving the stated category correspondence with the finite-free lattice convention.
Uniform pro-p group 2026-10-14
A finitely generated powerful p-group in the category of pro-p groups is uniform if all successive indices in its lower p-series are equal. Equivalently it is torsion-free. If its generator number is , the successive indices are , the power map carries bijectively onto , and an ordered minimal generating set gives unique coordinates with in the p-adic integers. For , powerfulness means .