Logarithm isomorphism on deep principal units Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-20
For a mixed-characteristic local field with residue characteristic , the p-adic logarithm and p-adic exponential function are mutually inverse continuous group homomorphisms on these domains. Bounds on the valuations of the denominators show that higher terms have greater valuation than the linear term. Dividing the logarithm by identifies the multiplicative higher principal-unit group with the additive integer ring; in particular it is torsion-free.
Set and , with valuation rings . Let be the ramification index, the residue-field degree, and the residue characteristic. A base uniformizer generates in , up to a unit. The free -module has rank . For an integral , its field trace is the matrix trace of multiplication by on this module. Reduction modulo preserves the matrix trace.
The quotient has a filtration
Each of the successive quotients is a one-dimensional vector space over . On each, multiplication by acts as multiplication by its residue , whose trace over is . A basis adapted to the filtration makes the multiplication matrix block triangular, so its trace is the sum of these quotient traces. This proves trace reduction in a ramified local extension:
Since the hypothesis says , the right side is zero in . Thus
No normality hypothesis is needed. The original PDF only requires divisibility of , not divisibility exactly once; the converted TeX has corrupted that condition and several local subscripts.
The Weak Mordell-Weil theorem asserts that is finite for an elliptic curve over a number field and an integer . The role of (i) is to make division by possible in the local formal group of an elliptic curve whenever the residue characteristic does not divide .
Let be a finite place with good reduction of an elliptic curve and . The kernel of reduction of an elliptic curve is parametrized by in the maximal ideal of the local valuation ring. Multiplication by is represented by an integral formal power series
Its linear coefficient is a local unit. Part (i) supplies an integral compositional inverse. Both series converge on the maximal ideal, so multiplication by is a bijection on the reduction kernel, over the local field and over every finite unramified extension.
This implies unramified division torsors at good primes. For , first divide its reduction by over the algebraic closure of the residue field. Multiplication by on the reduced curve is surjective and separable, so the chosen division point is defined over some finite residue extension. Smooth lifting gives a point over the corresponding unramified local extension with the required reduction. The difference lies in the reduction kernel; the inverse series supplies with . Thus divides over an unramified extension. Applying the same reasoning to all reduced -torsion points lifts all of , so every point of lies in the maximal unramified extension. This excludes ramification outside a fixed finite set consisting of primes of bad reduction and primes over .
For completeness, the remaining global finiteness step in the Kummer-theoretic proof of the weak Mordell-Weil theorem is as follows. Choose with . The cocycle defines the Kummer map of an elliptic curve
Changing by an -torsion point changes the cocycle by a coboundary. A zero class makes rational after that change, so the map is injective.
Let , fixed independently of . Since the torsion is rational over , the cocycle restricted to its Galois group is a homomorphism into . Consequently is Galois of degree at most , contains the entire division fibre, and is unramified outside . Hence . There are only finitely many extensions of bounded degree unramified outside a fixed finite set: local extensions of bounded degree have bounded field discriminant exponents, and the Hermite–Minkowski theorem then applies to the bounded global field discriminants. Their finite Galois compositum contains every such division fibre; each is stable over because it contains and the whole fibre above the rational point . All the Kummer classes consequently factor through the fixed finite group with values in the fixed finite group . There are only finitely many such cocycles, proving
Thus (i) provides the local division step that bounds ramification; the global arithmetic finiteness completes the argument.
A strong lifting lemma. Let be a complete discrete valuation ring, with fraction field and normalized discrete valuation . A useful strong form of Hensel lemma says that for and satisfying
there is a root with
If , take . Otherwise the hypothesis ensures that . The root is unique among satisfying . In particular, a simple root of the reduction of lifts uniquely with its specified residue.
Here is a proof by Newton iteration over a valued field. Put and
Write and . Taylor expansion over shows, inductively, that the increment has valuation , that , and that
Indeed, the constant and linear terms of cancel, leaving terms of valuation at least twice that of the increment. The change in has valuation greater than , so its valuation stays . Thus all iterates lie in and form a Cauchy sequence. Completeness and continuity give a root . The later increments have strictly larger valuations than the first, proving the displayed distance formula. For uniqueness, if are in the stated ball, Taylor expansion factors
The second factor is nonzero, so two roots must coincide. This proves Hensel's lemma in the form needed here.
Odd residue characteristic. For odd , a p-adic unit is a square exactly when its reduction is a square in . Necessity follows by reduction. For sufficiency, a nonzero residue root of has derivative invertible modulo , so the Hensel lemma lifts it. The multiplicative group of a finite field is cyclic, and its subgroup of squares has index two. Therefore
Representatives are and any unit whose reduction is a quadratic nonresidue.
Residue characteristic two. An odd integer has square congruent to one modulo eight, so a square 2-adic unit must lie in . Conversely, if , take and . Then , and the strong form of Hensel lemma produces a square root. Hence
The four unit square classes of the p-adic integers have representatives .
Logarithms on sufficiently deep units. Suppose , let be the residue characteristic, and put . For every integer the p-adic logarithm and p-adic exponential function, evaluated in , converge on the required domains:
The bounds and show that, for , every term beyond the linear one has valuation strictly greater than or . The series therefore converge and preserve these lattices; in particular . Their formal composition and addition identities are valid by convergence, giving inverse continuous group homomorphisms
Thus the logarithm isomorphism on deep principal units is
The right-hand group is torsion-free.
Roots of unity in . For odd , take . The principal unit group is torsion-free by the logarithm isomorphism on deep principal units. The Teichmuller representative splitting leaves precisely the roots in .
For , take . Each odd unit is uniquely with , since its residue modulo four is either one or minus one. This latter group is torsion-free. Consequently
This computes the roots of unity in the p-adic numbers.
The units of . Set . Its polynomial is Eisenstein, so
The Eisenstein polynomial facts justifying this are stated in the next solution. Write . Reduction gives , and the successive quotients of principal-unit groups
have order two for . Hence . The four roots in have distinct images modulo , since
They exhaust the quotient and intersect trivially. Since , the logarithm isomorphism on deep principal units gives . Therefore the unit decomposition of the 2-adic Gaussian field is
In particular these four elements are all its roots of unity.
Quadratic extensions. A nonzero element of is uniquely a power of times a unit, so . Squaring on the decomposition above acts as squaring on and multiplication by two on the additive ring . Thus the square-class group of the 2-adic Gaussian field is
By quadratic extensions from square classes, in characteristic different from two the nontrivial square classes classify quadratic extensions : two such extensions are -isomorphic exactly when is a square. There are therefore quadratic extensions up to -isomorphism.
The valuation ring and local compactness. The opening, unlettered requests use
The ultrametric inequality makes a valuation ring; its elements outside are exactly the units, so is its unique maximal ideal, and is the residue field.
Here the customary nontrivial-valuation hypothesis for a local field is necessary. With the trivial absolute value, any infinite field is discrete and locally compact, but its residue field is infinite and there is no nonzero uniformizer. We use the nontrivial valuation in the conclusions below.
Local compactness first gives a compact neighborhood of zero. Choose a sufficiently small nonzero so that the closed set is contained in that compact neighborhood. Then , and hence , is compact. Since is open, its cosets give a discrete compact quotient , which must be finite. Write . The subgroup now has finite index and is closed in , hence compact. The continuous function attains on a maximum with . Choose with . Every has , so
Successive division by shows that every nonzero element of is a unit times a power of : division must terminate because . Thus the value group is discrete. A Cauchy sequence eventually lies in a translate of the compact ring , has a convergent subsequence, and consequently converges itself. These arguments prove the discrete valuation from nontrivial local compactness and the completeness of locally compact nontrivially valued fields.
The iterated-power limit. Normalize the discrete valuation by , and write , where is the residue characteristic. For with , the binomial theorem gives
The linear term gains a factor (or is zero in positive characteristic), while all terms of degree at least two have valuation at least .
For , reduction gives , because has order . Iterating the inequality yields
The sequence is Cauchy and converges to a unit . Since the reduction of is always , its limit has the same residue. Taking limits after shifting the sequence gives , whence
This is the Teichmuller representative. The Hensel lemma applied to , whose derivative is a unit at every nonzero residue, shows uniqueness for each residue. Consequently the prime-to- roots give a canonical splitting
The discrete valuation gives a split exact sequence
split by . Reduction gives a second exact sequence
The Teichmuller lift identifies the cyclic group with the group of prime-to- roots of unity in , where is the residue characteristic. Consequently the multiplicative group of a non-Archimedean local field decomposes as
If , the p-adic logarithm identifies a sufficiently deep higher principal-unit group with the additive group of a rank- -lattice. The remaining kernel is precisely the finite group of -power roots of unity in . Thus the principal-unit group of a mixed-characteristic local field has the topological group structure
For an integral element of a finite extension of non-Archimedean local fields, reduce the multiplication endomorphism on modulo a base uniformizer. Its filtration by the powers of the maximal ideal has successive quotients, each the residue field . Multiplication by induces multiplication by on each quotient. Additivity of the matrix trace through the filtration proves the formula. If the residue characteristic divides the ramification index, the trace of every integral element lies in the base maximal ideal; a Galois extension is not required.