Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 2 1 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The commutative Laurent polynomial ring is an integral domain and is invertible. Write nonzero elements asThe largest exponent in their product is , with coefficientThere is only one pair of exponents contributing at this degree, and the coefficient cannot vanish in the integral domain . Hence . Equivalently, forces or . This is skew Laurent extensions of domains are domains, and the argument works over the original field in any characteristic.