Chinese remainder theorem Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-13
The Chinese remainder theorem says that remainders modulo pairwise coprime positive integers can be specified independently. For pairwise coprime and , every prescribed list determines one congruence class modulo satisfying for all . It determines a class, rather than one unrestricted integer: adding a multiple of preserves every remainder.
For example, combine and . Write from the first condition. The second becomes . Since three has modular inverse two modulo five, , giving . The integers , and all work. The fifteen possibilities modulo fifteen correspond to the fifteen pairs in a three-by-five grid.
The theorem also preserves arithmetic: reducing an addition or a multiplication modulo each gives the same tuple as performing that operation on the corresponding congruence classes. In the language of quotient rings, reduction is a ring isomorphismOne large residue is thus an exact encoding of several smaller residues. This is useful for splitting arithmetic into smaller calculations and then reconstructing the result; MIT's modular arithmetic notes develop both the reconstruction and the product representation. [ref]
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/18-200-principles-of-discrete-applied-mathematics-spring-2024/mit18_200_s24_lec15.pdf. Moitra, MIT 18.200, Lecture 15, section 4, Chinese remainder theorem
For a concrete multiplication, corresponds to and to modulo . Their componentwise product is , which reconstructs to , agreeing with .A constructive formula explains the independence. For , put and choose with , using a modular multiplicative inverse. Then is one modulo and zero modulo every other . Thereforehas the desired remainders. A modulus equal to one imposes no restriction and can be omitted. Uniqueness follows because a difference divisible by every is divisible by their product when they are pairwise coprime. This short construction gives a reusable algorithm as well as an existence statement.
The coprime hypothesis explains why every cell in the left grid is attainable. With integer moduli six and eight, a pair must agree modulo their greatest common divisor, two. There are twenty-four compatible pairs, rather than forty-eight arbitrary pairs; each corresponds to a class modulo the least common multiple, twenty-four. The Chinese remainder theorem for noncoprime moduli states the resulting compatibility rule.
Chinese remainder theorem for ideals 2026-10-13
For pairwise comaximal ideals in a commutative ring, reduction has the displayed ring isomorphism. The kernel is their intersection, equal to their product. Choose with ; then lifts any prescribed residue tuple. The equality between intersection and product follows from , , , which writes each as .
Isomorphism Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
An isomorphism is a morphism with a two-sided inverse that is also a morphism. Two objects are isomorphic when such a map exists between them. For groups, rings, and vector spaces, a bijective structure-preserving map has a structure-preserving inverse; in other settings the inverse condition needs separate attention, as for a homeomorphism between topological spaces.
For example, is a group isomorphism from the additive integers to the additive even integers. It is bijective onto that target, satisfies , and has inverse . The two groups have the same addition pattern even though they are different sets. It is not a ring isomorphism for their inherited multiplications, since while .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ib Paper 3 11E b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
Reducing coefficients modulo gives the ring isomorphismIf , its monic leading coefficient remains one modulo , so . Polynomial division gives a unique representative of degree less than : existence follows by division, and the difference of two such representatives cannot be a nonzero multiple of a degree- monic polynomial. There are choices for each of the coefficients, provingIrreducibility of is not needed for finiteness; without it the quotient ring need not be a field.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 103 1 a ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The projections in the Gelfand–Tsetlin algebra satisfyConsequently the map sending a diagonal element to its scalar on each Gelfand–Tsetlin basis vector is a ring isomorphismEach factor is a simple module over this algebra, and the algebra is their direct sum as a module over itself. This proves that is a semisimple algebra. The argument uses its explicit diagonal structure; being a subalgebra of a semisimple algebra by itself would not suffice.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 1 24I d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The semicubical parabola has coordinate ringunder , . The isomorphism is valid in every characteristic: after division by the monic polynomial in , a remainder maps to a sum of distinct even powers and odd powers at least three, and can vanish only when both polynomials are zero.
Its fraction field contains , which is an integral element over because it satisfies . However , since a polynomial in has no term of degree one. Thus is not an integrally closed domain. The ring of the affine line is a principal ideal domain and therefore an integrally closed domain. This property is preserved by ring isomorphism. By coordinate-ring functoriality,The parametrization is a bijection on points over an algebraically closed field, but that does not make its inverse a morphism at the cusp.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 1 1I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The Chinese remainder theorem says that if the positive integers are pairwise coprime and , then for arbitrary residue classes there is a unique residue class satisfyingEquivalently, reduction is a ring isomorphism
For existence, put . Pairwise coprimality gives , so Bézout's identity supplies an integer with . Thenhas the required residues, because every term except the th is divisible by . If and are two solutions, each divides . Pairwise coprimality then implies that their product divides , proving uniqueness modulo .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 113 1 b Solution 2026-09-28
Let . Some homogeneous lies outside . Choose with . Since is surjective, for some homogeneous ; primality gives . Thus , and .
Fix a positive-degree homogeneous and write . The mapis surjective: after multiplying the numerator and denominator of any degree-zero fraction by a sufficiently large power of , its numerator has degree at least and therefore lifts through . It is injective by the same device: if maps to zero, then for some , and after increasing the injectivity of in degree gives . Hence the displayed map is a ring isomorphism.
The opens obtained in this way cover , and on every one of them is an isomorphism onto . The inverses agree on overlaps, so is an isomorphism of schemes. This proves the Invariance of Proj under an eventual graded isomorphism.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 151 3 Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For , the square-zero ideal condition givesThus the square-zero unit subgroup is abelian, andis a group isomorphism from the additive group of .
Use the specified ring isomorphism . For , choose a lift and define for . Two lifts differ by an element of , whose product with vanishes, so this is well defined. Right multiplication is handled identically. The two actions commute by associativity, making a bimodule. If lifts , then is a unit: a lift of makes both and elements of , hence units, and a ring element with both a left and a right inverse is invertible. Conjugation therefore definesChanging by an element of does not change this expression because . Moreover,so is an isomorphism of -modules for these conjugation actions.
Let be reduction on unit groups, and define as the inverse image of the distinguished subgroup . Every has a unit lift by the preceding argument, and the kernel consists exactly of the units congruent to , namely . Multiplication in therefore gives the group extensionChoose a set-theoretic section with . Its extension cocyclesatisfies the two-cocycle identity by associativity. A different section changes by a group coboundary, so second group cohomology classifies group extensions gives a well-defined classThe same construction for gives , an extension cocycle , and .
The answer to the final question is no. An abstract ring isomorphism need not carry the distinguished ideal to , need not induce the identity under the two chosen identifications of the quotient rings with , and need not induce the prescribed -module isomorphism . Hence it need not give an isomorphism of the two displayed group extensions, so it imposes no equality . That equality does hold if the ring isomorphism has all three compatibility properties, because it then carries one extension cocycle to the other up to a group coboundary.
