First Lubin–Tate torsion fields for the p-adic numbers Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-28
The two Lubin–Tate series and for have respective nonzero -torsion points and the roots of . A Lubin–Tate change of series identifies their torsion fields, so
Fix a non-Archimedean local field , its valuation ring , a uniformizer , and a residue field with cardinality . The construction below applies both in mixed and equal characteristic. A one-dimensional commutative formal group law is with identity, associativity and commutativity, and higher-degree terms. It has a unique formal inverse. Its morphisms are series with ; a unit linear coefficient makes such a morphism invertible by recursive coefficient comparison. Evaluating its integral series on the maximal ideal of a finite extension of is legitimate because the series converge there.
Choose a Lubin–Tate series satisfying
A useful choice is . The Lubin–Tate functional equation lemma constructs a unique series with any prescribed linear form and satisfying
Here is its coefficient argument. If terms below degree have been found, the unknown homogeneous degree- term appears with multiplier . The already known error has every coefficient divisible by : after reduction, the equation becomes , valid because the residue coefficients lie in . Since is times a unit for , the next term is uniquely determined and integral. Recursion proves existence and uniqueness.
Use to construct , and to construct for every . Uniqueness gives and . Comparing with , which satisfy the same functional equation and have the same linear form, proves that is an endomorphism of the law. The same uniqueness applied to three variables proves associativity: and have the same linear form and functional equation. It also proves commutativity and the identities
Thus this Lubin–Tate formal group is equipped with an action of the whole ring , not only its integers. For a unit , the inverse of is . The same recursion, with two series for the fixed , gives a unique strict Lubin–Tate change of series. Its integral series and inverse converge on torsion points, so it identifies their torsion fields. We may compute with without losing the general construction for that uniformizer.
Write and . The Lubin–Tate torsion of level is
For , its primitive points are the roots of
This is a monic polynomial of degree . Modulo it is , and its constant coefficient is exactly . Thus the Eisenstein layers of Lubin–Tate torsion are Eisenstein polynomials. A root generates a totally ramified extension of degree , and has in the uniquely extended valuation. Also , so it has exact level .
The map
is well-defined and injective. If with and a unit, then , because is invertible and is primitive. Conversely every multiple of kills it. The image therefore contains distinct roots of the degree- polynomial , so it is all of . This proves, without merely assuming the torsion cardinality,
Its primitive generators are exactly with .
Define the Lubin–Tate extension . Every integral endomorphism series evaluated at converges in the complete field , so all torsion points already lie there. Hence
It is the splitting field of , which has distinct roots by the module calculation. Thus it is Galois. Every K-automorphism preserves the uniquely extended absolute value on a field, hence is continuous and commutes with limits of the integral endomorphism series. Its automorphisms therefore commute with the endomorphism action and send a primitive generator to a primitive generator. There is a unique unit class such that . The Lubin–Tate Galois action on primitive torsion gives an injective homomorphism
Both sides have order , so it is an isomorphism. In particular every finite layer is abelian and totally ramified.
For an example, take , , and the equally admissible series . Its formal group law is the formal multiplicative group , with for . The binomial polynomials make its coefficients integral. Its level- torsion points are with . Thus the Lubin–Tate cyclotomic example gives and Galois action . The order formula includes , when the first field and its Galois group are trivial over .
Finally choose primitive points compatibly, . They exist by taking a root of in the algebraic closure; its roots have positive valuation and exact level . Then , and restriction of Galois automorphisms corresponds to reduction of unit classes. The Lubin–Tate tower consequently has the topological Galois group
The final isomorphism uses completeness of the discrete valuation ring . This computes the finite-layer and infinite-tower Galois groups directly from the formal action and the primitive Eisenstein polynomials.
A Lubin–Tate series for is a power series such that
The key Lubin–Tate lemma is that if and are such series and with , there is a unique series satisfying
Taking and defines . Uniqueness applied to the two sides of each identity proves the identity, associativity, and commutativity axioms, so is a formal group law. Taking defines endomorphisms , and uniqueness gives
Thus is the Lubin–Tate formal group as a formal -module, with .
For another Lubin–Tate series , apply the lemma with to obtain
Uniqueness shows that respects both formal addition and every scalar endomorphism. Its linear coefficient is the unit one, so it has a compositional inverse; equivalently, applying the lemma with and reversed supplies the inverse. Hence this Lubin–Tate change of series is an isomorphism of formal -modules.
Over , consider the two Lubin–Tate series
Both have linear term and reduce to modulo . The nonzero roots of are , while the nonzero roots of satisfy
The Lubin–Tate change of series and its inverse have coefficients in and converge on the maximal ideal. They therefore give mutually inverse bijections between the first torsion sets without changing the fields generated by them. Hence the first Lubin–Tate torsion fields for the p-adic numbers satisfy
Since , the required equality follows.