Past exam of the rings and modules course of the University of Oxford 2021 3 c ii Solution 2026-10-25
Write . The unit group is a finite abelian group of group order , since multiplication in a field satisfies commutativity. The structure theorem for finitely generated abelian groups, applied to this finite group, gives invariant factors of a finitely generated moduleafter omitting trivial factors. If there are no factors, the unit group is trivial and hence a cyclic group.
Otherwise put . Every element satisfies , because the order of a group element in each coordinate divides . Hence all distinct nonzero elements of are roots of a polynomial . The root bound for a polynomial over a field givesFor completeness, that bound follows by induction from the factor theorem: if a nonzero polynomial vanishes at , write ; every other root of a polynomial is a root of , because a field has no zero divisors. Each new distinct root therefore uses one unit of polynomial degree.
On the other hand, the group order in the decomposition isEquality is forced, so . As every retained factor is greater than , there can be only one. ConsequentlyThe same proof establishes the more general result finite multiplicative subgroup of a field is cyclic. The square-free integer result in part (c)(i) alone would not suffice, since need not be a square-free integer; the root bound for a polynomial rules out multiple invariant factors of a finitely generated module even then.
Past exam of the rings and modules course of the University of Oxford 2021 3 c i Solution 2026-10-25
Let be a square-free integer. If , then is the trivial cyclic group. Otherwise, finiteness means that a direct sum of modules decomposition into cyclic groups has only finitely many nontrivial factors, each of finite group order. Omit trivial factors and writeThe integers are coprime integers whenever . If a prime number divided both, then , contradicting the square-free integer hypothesis.
Moreover, and are coprime integers: any common prime divisor would divide one of the earlier factors as well as . Thus part (b)(ii) can be applied repeatedly to combine factors, givingIn particular is a cyclic group. Under the displayed identifications, the element whose coordinate in every factor is the class of is a generator of a group.
Pure cubic number field Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
A pure cubic number field is a degree-three number field generated by a root of for a rational number that is not a rational cube. For a positive square-free integer , this polynomial is an Eisenstein polynomial at any prime dividing . The ring of integers of a number field depends on congruences at , as expressed by the integral basis of a nonexceptional pure cubic field.
Quadratic field 2026-10-14
A quadratic number field is a number field of degree of a field extension two, necessarily of the form for a square-free integer . Its two field embeddings send to . If , both images lie in the real numbers, giving a totally real number field; if , they form a pair related by complex conjugation, giving an imaginary quadratic field. The ring of integers of a quadratic field depends on modulo four.[ref]
Let be a positive square-free integer congruent to one modulo four, with distinct prime factors . The ring of integers is . Each ramified prime ideal satisfies , so its ideal class has order dividing two. Their product is the principal ideal .
There are no further subset relations. For a nonempty proper subset , put . If , the ideal norm gives . But forces and makes the square-free integer a square, a contradiction. Thus the homomorphism defined by the ramified classes has exactly the all-ones relation, and its image is . This identifies a subgroup, without asserting that these classes exhaust the ideal class group.
Rational group with square-free denominators 2026-10-03
The additive group consists of the rational numbers whose reduced denominators are square-free integers. If lists the primes without repetition, then
For distinct integral roots with , the finite set in unramified halving fields for a split cubic contains only primes at most . A quadratic Galois character unramified away from primes is represented by a signed square-free integer supported on those primes, giving at most characters. The halving cocycle with rational two-torsion has two independent coordinates in , so the quotient has at most elements. Since and there are at most primes at most , this gives . The bound is deliberately crude but depends only on the root size.
Ring of integers of a quadratic field Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be a square-free integer, and let be the associated quadratic field. ThenThe pair is an integral basis. The field discriminant is in the first case and in the second. This statement requires to be a square-free integer: for example, but omits .[ref]
https://kconrad.math.uconn.edu/blurbs/gradnumthy/quadraticgrad.pdf. Conrad, Factoring in Quadratic Fields, Theorem 3.4
For , the integral basis is , and the field discriminant is . For , it is with , and the field discriminant is . The identity makes closed under multiplication. Since , the smaller order in a number field consists precisely of with even . This computes its index two and shows concretely why adjoining a square root does not always supply every algebraic integer.
In this second integral basis, the field norm isIn particular, and : the extra algebraic integer is also a unit. The units of the quadratic field Q square root of five describe all its powers.
Squarefree counting function 2026-10-20
The squarefree counting function is . The Möbius function gives , because is the indicator of a square-free integer.
Square-free integer Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-20
A positive integer is square-free when no square number greater than one is a divisor of . It suffices to exclude squares of prime numbers; equivalently, every prime valuation is zero or one:Thus the prime factorization of a square-free integer is a product of distinct prime factors, with no repetitions. One is included: its prime factorization is an empty product and all its prime valuations are zero. These equivalent tests are stated in Grinberg's notes. [ref]
https://darijgrinberg.gitlab.io/floor.pdf. Darij Grinberg, MIT 18.781, Floor and arithmetic functions, Definition 2.1.2 and footnote 6
For signed integers, extend the definition by requiring to be a square-free integer, where denotes absolute value. Hence and both qualify. Zero does not: every prime number has its square as a divisor of zero. The Möbius function and radical of an integer below use their existing positive integer domains, so apply them to when handling a negative integer.
For example, is a square-free integer, whereas is not, because and . Being a composite number causes no problem: are all square-free integers. A square-free integer need not be coprime to another integer: and are both square-free integers but have greatest common divisor two. In fact the only signed integers coprime to every integer are , since .
Exact square-free integer classification of the integers from one to sixty
. Green cells are square-free integers; each red cell displays a prime number square that divides its label, choosing the smallest such prime number. Only need testing in this range. There are green cells. This original finite arithmetic diagram is an exact enumeration, not a measurement or an assertion about a limiting frequency. Details.For positive integers , the useful product criterion isThe proof outline is just addition of prime valuations: can stay at most one only if neither input repeats a prime factor and no prime factor occurs in both. Thus is a square-free integer, but is not. An equivalent characterization is that every factorization into positive integers has coprime factors. If , the factorization supplies two factors sharing ; conversely, a shared prime factor forces its square to divide . For , the unordered factor pairs all have greatest common divisor one; for , the pair fails.
Two existing arithmetic functions turn the definition into practical tests:The radical of an integer keeps one copy of each prime factor, so it changes precisely the integers with a repeated prime factor. Its definition is given in Evertse's exercise sheet. [ref]
https://pub.math.leidenuniv.nl/~evertsejh/dio12-ex4.pdf. Jan-Hendrik Evertse, Diophantine approximation, Homework IV, Exercise 20
The Möbius function assigns to a square-free integer with distinct prime factors and zero otherwise; squaring forgets the sign. Consequently counts exactly the green cells. This connects a restriction on repeated prime factors with weighted counting and inclusion-exclusion. [ref]https://darijgrinberg.gitlab.io/floor.pdf. Darij Grinberg, MIT 18.781, Definition 2.1.2: the Möbius function
