Two absolute values on a field are equivalent absolute values when they induce the same topology. For nontrivial absolute values on a field this is equivalent tofor a fixed real number . The trivial absolute value is equivalent only to itself.
Restriction of a Non-Archimedean absolute value plainly preserves the ultrametric inequality. Conversely, if the restriction is non-Archimedean, every integer, interpreted in either field, has absolute value on a field at most one. In particular every binomial coefficient has absolute value on a field at most one. The triangle inequality applied to the binomial expansion gives, for and every positive integer ,Raise both sides to the power and let . Since , this yieldsThis is the bounded-integer criterion for a non-Archimedean absolute value. The proof works for arbitrary field extensions, not just algebraic ones, and in positive characteristic as well.
First include the trivial absolute value if that convention is allowed. For a nontrivial Non-Archimedean absolute value on , every integer has absolute value on a field at most one, and some nonzero integer has absolute value on a field less than one: otherwise every nonzero rational number, being a quotient of two integers, would have absolute value on a field one. Factoring that integer shows that some prime number has .
There cannot be two such prime numbers. If and for distinct prime numbers, choose integers with . Then the ultrametric inequality givesEvery other prime number therefore has absolute value on a field one. Factoring numerator and denominator of a rational number givesThus the nontrivial equivalence classes are precisely the p-adic absolute values, one for each prime number.
Now let be a number field, with ring of integers of a number field . If the restriction of an absolute value on a field to is trivial, a monic polynomial over satisfied by forces : if , its leading term would strictly dominate the other terms. Applying the same argument to forces for . Thus a nontrivial absolute value on a field defined on has a nontrivial restriction, associated with some prime number .
Every has , by applying the same leading-term argument to its monic integral equation. Consequentlyis a proper prime ideal: it is an ideal by the ultrametric inequality, and with implies that at least one factor has absolute value on a field less than one. It is nonzero because it contains .
The localization lies in the valuation ring of the absolute value on a field: a denominator outside has absolute value on a field one. Since is a Dedekind domain, is a discrete valuation ring. Choose its uniformizer . Each has a unique expressionBoth and lie in the valuation ring, so . Also belongs to its maximal ideal, hence . Therefore .
Conversely each nonzero prime ideal of gives the Non-Archimedean absolute value for any , using the discrete valuation of . All choices of are equivalent, and different prime ideals are distinguished by the elements of having absolute value on a field less than one. We have proved Non-Archimedean absolute values on a number field:The trivial class is additional when trivial absolute values on a field are admitted.
An extending absolute value on a field is non-Archimedean by Question 1(a). We prove finite-dimensional non-Archimedean norm equivalence over a complete field, using completeness rather than local compactness.
Fix a basis of a finite-dimensional vector space over , and let be a norm homogeneous for the given absolute value on a field and satisfying the ultrametric inequality. Write . The upper boundis immediate. For the lower bound use induction on . The one-dimensional case is homogeneity. For the induction step, the span of is complete for its restricted norm by the induction comparison with the coordinate norm and completeness of . A complete vector subspace of a metric space is closed, soFor with , scaling by gives ; the same coefficient bound is trivial when . AlsoThe induction bound controls every coordinate of by a constant times . Together with the bound on , this proves .
Two extending absolute values on a field on are norms of this kind on its finite-dimensional vector space over . Hence there is with for every . Apply this to and use multiplicativity:Letting gives . Interchanging the two norms gives equality. ThusThe proof covers the trivial base absolute value on a field too. It proves uniqueness, without assuming an existence theorem or compactness of the coordinate sphere .
False. This is an example of integral trace need not imply integrality. Take with , the splitting field of . Its two conjugates are , and its normalized discrete valuation satisfies , , by the Eisenstein polynomial criterion. Forthe field trace is zero, but . Therefore is not in the valuation ring, despite having integral field trace. Cancellation in a sum of conjugates explains why a field trace test fails.
True. Each element of the Galois group preserves the extending absolute value on a field, because composing it with that absolute value on a field gives another extension, equal to the original by part (a). Thus all conjugates of have the same absolute value on a field. Writing , the field norm givesA unit field norm has absolute value on a field one, forcing . This means both and are in the valuation ring, so is a unit.
Equivalently, with normalized discrete valuations and residue degree ,This is unit norm detects units in a local extension.
True. Put . Every fixes , permutes the polynomial's polynomial roots, and is an isometry by the uniqueness proved in part (a). ThereforeThe strict inequalities single out as the unique closest polynomial root, so for every . The Fundamental theorem of Galois theory then givesThis closest-root descent in a Galois extension is the relevant form of Krasner's lemma. If polynomial roots repeat, the strict hypothesis excludes a second occurrence of ; otherwise the same argument applies unchanged.
False. Use the polynomial , with splitting field , , and label the polynomial roots . Take . ThenBoth and are p-adic units, also when . Hence zero is the uniquely closest polynomial root, but , because . The polynomial need not be irreducible in the given setup. The inclusion established by Krasner's lemma goes in the direction in part (iii), not its converse.
Use the strong form of Hensel lemma: for and , ifthere is a unique polynomial root in the ball . In particular, a simple polynomial root modulo lifts uniquely in its residue class. Newton iteration gives when .
For odd , the setseach have elements, so they intersect. This gives a zero modulo with . The derivative with respect to is , nonzero modulo , so Hensel's lemma lifts while holding fixed. This is the elementary proof of isotropy of nondegenerate ternary quadratic forms over finite fields followed by a simple-root lift.
At , the residue vector is a zero, and the derivative is nonzero. At , use , for which the value is 52 and the derivative is nonzero modulo 13. Again a single-variable Hensel lift suffices.
At , hold and use . At , has valuation 3, while has valuation 1. Since , the strong Hensel inequality gives a polynomial root , indeed . This yields a nonzero solution.
At , suppose a nonzero solution exists and scale it so that all coordinates are in and at least one is a unit. Reduction modulo 7 gives . Since 5 is not a square modulo 7, both are divisible by 7. In the original equation their terms are then divisible by 49, so is divisible by 49 as well, forcing divisible by 7. This contradicts the normalization. Thus local isotropy of the five seven thirteen form gives
The intended statement uses a nontrivial Non-Archimedean absolute value. Under that convention choose with . A compact neighborhood of zero contains an open ball of some radius . For sufficiently large , is contained in that ball. The valuation ring is closed, so is a closed subset of and is compact. Scaling shows that itself is compact.
Its maximal ideal is open. The residue field is therefore discrete and compact, hence finite: the open cover by its singleton sets has a finite subcover. Since has finite index, its complement is a finite union of open cosets. Thus is also closed and compact.
The continuous absolute value on a field attains its maximum on . Nontriviality supplies a nonzero element there, so this maximum is for some , with . If , then , so .
For arbitrary , choose the integer for which . Then . This element cannot lie in , by maximality of , so its absolute value on a field is one. Therefore . This proves discrete valuation from nontrivial local compactness:
The nontrivial valuation in the local compactness criterion is essential. If the trivial absolute value is admitted, the displayed source claim is false: take with that absolute value on a field. It is complete and discrete, hence locally compact, but its valuation ring and residue field are both , which is infinite. The intended nontrivial case has been proved above.
A local field is nondiscrete and locally compact. In the non-Archimedean case its valuation ring is compact by the scaling argument in part (b). Any Cauchy sequence has a tail in a translate of a compact ball, so has a convergent subsequence; the Cauchy property forces the whole sequence to converge. Thus the field is complete. Part (b) gives a discrete valuation, a uniformizer , and a finite residue field , .
We construct the coefficient field rather than presuming it exists. The polynomial has derivative in characteristic . Every residue element therefore has a unique polynomial root lift by Hensel's lemma. The set of these lifts is a field: qth powers preserve addition and multiplication, so sums and products remain polynomial root lifts; a nonzero lift has inverse . Reduction identifies with . This is the finite coefficient field in positive-characteristic local fields.
For , choose with the same residue, write , and repeat with . Completeness givesThe first nonzero coefficient determines the valuation, so the expansion is unique. Multiplying an arbitrary field element by a suitable power of reduces it to this case. Consequently substitution gives a valued-field isomorphismAddition and multiplication agree with those of Laurent series by convergence, and a nonzero series has a nonzero leading coefficient, establishing injectivity as well as surjectivity.
Conversely, is complete for its T-adic absolute value on a field. Its valuation ring is compact: fixing finitely many coefficients gives the finite partitions into balls, and the successive coefficient choices realize the inverse limit of the finite rings . Equivalently it is the product of countably many finite discrete coefficient sets. Thus it is a non-Archimedean local field. Distinct give nonisomorphic valued fields because their residue fields have different sizes. Replacing by any number in gives an equivalent absolute value on a field.
Put . For an unramified extension the ramification index is one and . The residue has degree over . Thus are linearly independent over : a nonzero linear dependence can be divided by a coefficient of least valuation and reduced to a nonzero relation among the reduced powers. Hence , and generates .
The same argument gives the integral statement, which is stronger than merely generating the field. WriteIf , divide by . Since remains a uniformizer in the unramified extension and the reduced powers form a basis of , the resulting sum has nonzero residue. Therefore . In particular is integral if and only if every coefficient is integral. This proves unramified residue generator integral basis:
For the finite separable field extension define the inverse different, or codifferent, byIt is a fractional ideal of . The different ideal is its inverse fractional ideal.
Suppose the integer ring is generated by , with monic minimal polynomial of an algebraic element of degree . We prove the derivative formula using the coefficient pairing for a monogenic algebra. If are its distinct conjugate polynomial roots, Lagrange interpolation for a polynomial of degree less than givesComparing coefficients of yieldsFor any integral polynomial, first reduce modulo ; the coefficients stay integral because is monic over .
It follows that lies in the codifferent. To prove equality, consider the matrixAll entries are integral. Entries with are zero, and those with are one. Reversing the column order makes the matrix triangular with diagonal ones; thus its determinant is a unit of .
Write an arbitrary as with . Membership in the codifferent says . Since is invertible over , this forces every integral. ThereforeSeparability ensures that ; the trace pairing calculation also proves that no extra factor has been overlooked.
For , put . The polynomialis Eisenstein at . It gives , total ramification, and . Also : in the power basis, terms have valuations in different residue classes modulo , so cannot cancel at the minimum. Integrality forces all integral.
Use part (b) with and differentiate the quotient at :The root of unity is a unit, while and . Hence the cyclotomic local different exponent isThis includes : that extension is trivial and the exponent is zero.
For , construct an unramified quadratic extension by lifting an irreducible quadratic polynomial over . Its residue field is . Each of its nonzero residue elements is a simple polynomial root of , so Hensel's lemma lifts all polynomial roots into . A primitive residue element lifts to a primitive mth polynomial root: its reduction already has order , and its mth power is one.
Such a primitive polynomial root cannot generate a proper subfield of , since its residue has order and therefore generates the quadratic residue extension. Thus is unramified of degree two. Part (a) gives . The reduced minimal polynomial of an algebraic element has degree two and is separable, so its derivative at is a unit. Part (b) givesBoth answers use normalized discrete valuations on the top field.
Let be a finite Galois extension of non-Archimedean local fields, with Galois group , normalized valuation , integer ring , and residue characteristic . The lower ramification numbering isThese higher ramification groups measure successively finer agreement with the identity. The group is the inertia group, the kernel of the action on the residue field. Each is normal in : conjugation permutes integral elements and preserves their valuations. The groups eventually become trivial, since each nonidentity automorphism moves some integral element and its displacement has finite valuation.
Let , the maximal unramified subextension of a local field extension. Then is the Galois group of the residue extension, cyclic and generated by a Frobenius automorphism. For a uniformizer of , the uniformizer criterion for lower ramification groups givesTo see why one uniformizer suffices, the extension is totally ramified and its integer ring is . Elements of fix its coefficients. Differences of powers of are divisible by , so the valuation bound for implies it for every integral element. The converse follows by testing itself.
The tame inertia quotient is seen explicitly fromIt is a homomorphism because inertia acts trivially on the residue field, and its kernel is . Thus is cyclic of order not divisible by . For , the homomorphismhas kernel . Indeed composing two automorphisms adds the leading displacements, since and inertia fixes residue coefficients. Hence each is an elementary abelian p-group. Eventual triviality makes a p-group; the prime-to-p quotient makes it the unique Sylow subgroup of . This is the wild inertia group. Tame ramification means .
The filtration also measures the different exponent. For the totally ramified extension over , the minimal polynomial of an algebraic element of has polynomial roots , . The derivative formula givesFor a fixed , its displacement valuation is the number of indices for which it belongs to . Interchanging the finite sums therefore gives different exponent from ramification groups:The unramified part contributes zero. More generally different in a tower follows by taking products of bases of a module dual for the trace pairing, and givesThus a tame extension has different exponent , while nontrivial wild groups contribute additional positive terms.
The lower numbering restricts to subgroups: if , its groups are , directly from the definition using the same top-field valuation. Quotients need a different indexing. For real put and define the Herbrand functionThis upper ramification numbering stretches or compresses intervals according to the inertia indices. The quotient theorem says that for a normal subgroup , upper ramification groups commute with quotients:In particular the same upper index has a meaning compatible with passing to a smaller Galois extension, which lower indices generally lack.
For a tame totally ramified extension the picture is simple: , all with are trivial, and the different exponent is . The extension for odd illustrates this, giving exponent .
A mixed-characteristic wild family is the lower ramification filtration of a prime-power cyclotomic extension. Take with odd and . If and modulo , thenThe last equality follows because has order and its uniformizer valuation scales by the ramification index in that cyclotomic tower. The lower breaks are . Integrating the successive indices gives upper breaks .
In equal characteristic there is an equally explicit wild example. Start with and an Artin–Schreier extensionThere is no polynomial root in : a negative-valuation element has , while the right side has valuation . Adjoining a polynomial root splits the polynomial, whose polynomial roots are for , so the extension is cyclic of degree . The valuation equation forces total ramification, and . Choose with and set . Then is a uniformizer. For a nonidentity automorphism ,the first binomial coefficient is nonzero modulo , and all subsequent terms have strictly higher valuation. ThereforeThis is the ramification break of an Artin–Schreier pole. It shows concretely that wild breaks, unlike tame inertia, can occur arbitrarily far out in the filtration.
The lower groups measure integral displacements, the upper groups make quotient comparison possible, and the sizes of the groups determine the different.
The polynomial is Eisenstein at every prime number , so a polynomial root generates a totally ramified cubic field . The splitting-field Galois group is a transitive subgroup of , hence or . Its polynomial discriminant isThe product of the three polynomial root differences is a square root of , transformed by the sign of the polynomial root permutation. Thus the group is exactly when is a square, and otherwise it is . In the latter case the splitting field isIndeed adjoining one polynomial root leaves a quadratic factor, whose polynomial discriminant is , so the square root of supplies its remaining polynomial roots.
Suppose first that . The unit reduces to , and Hensel's lemma makes it a square exactly when is a square modulo . Quadratic reciprocity givesIf , the field generated by is already the cyclic splitting field, totally ramified of degree three. If , the nonsquare unit gives an unramified quadratic field . Since and have coprime degrees, . Its residue degree is at least two and its ramification index at least three; their product is six, so they are exactly two and three. Thus its inertia group is the normal inside .
In both cases the ramification index is three and is not divisible by . The wild inertia group is trivial, so all positive lower groups are trivial. As a different check, has valuation two in when , agreeing with tame different exponent .
For the polynomial discriminant is , which is nonsquare. Hence . The quadratic subfield can be written with . It is ramified of degree two, by the Eisenstein polynomial . Together with the totally ramified cubic field this forces to be divisible by both two and three. Since , the splitting field is totally ramified. In its normalized valuation,
All differences between distinct polynomial roots have the same valuation, since permutes the polynomial root pairs and preserves the absolute value on a field. Alsohas valuation six, so each polynomial root difference has valuation three. A nonidentity three-cycle fixes , and thereforeThe transposition fixing negates , so sends to and has displacement valuation . The other transpositions have the same value by conjugacy. The uniformizer criterion now determines every group:For the wild case the different exponent is . Independently, the cubic subfield has different exponent , and the quadratic extension is tame with exponent one. The tower formula gives , confirming the filtration. Its positive upper break is , because . This completes ramification of the splitting field of X3 plus pX plus p for every odd prime number.
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