Past exam of the number theory course of the University of Oxford / 2011 / B / 4 / a / Solution

An integral basis is a $\mathbb{Z}$-basis of the ring of integers ${\mathcal{O}}_K$; it consists of $n$ algebraic integers and is also a $\mathbb{Q}$-basis of $K$.

The lattice $M$ has finite index $h=[{\mathcal{O}}_K:M]>1$. Choose a prime $p\mid h$. The finite abelian group ${\mathcal{O}}_K/M$ has an element of order $p$, represented by $\alpha \in {\mathcal{O}}_K\setminus M$. ThusIf all $c_j$ were divisible by $p$, cancellation in the characteristic-zero field would put $\alpha$ in $M$, a contradiction. The discriminant-index formula for an integral lattice giveswhere ${\Delta }^2(K)$ is an integer. Hence $p^2\mid {\Delta }^2(M)$, and the required integral element is $\alpha =p^{-1}{\sum }_j{c}_j{w}_j$.