This ternary quadratic form has a nonzero zero over exactly when . Away from , the finite-field square-set intersection proof supplies a nonsingular residue zero, and Hensel lemma lifts it. At 5 use modulo 5; at 13 use . At 2 hold and apply the strong form of Hensel lemma to at : the function and derivative have valuations 3 and 1. At 7, the equation modulo 7 forces because 5 is not a square; reduction after dividing by 7 then forces . Any normalized integral nonzero solution would therefore have all coordinates divisible by 7, a contradiction.
Newton iteration over a valued field 2026-09-24
Starting from , Newton iteration sets . Under the strong form of Hensel lemma inequality, the correction valuations grow at least geometrically, so is a Cauchy sequence converging to a root.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 23 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For a local field containing the Nth roots of unity, fix the Local Artin map with arithmetic Frobenius convention. The Hilbert norm residue symbol can be defined byIt is independent of the chosen root, continuous and bimultiplicative, factors through in each variable, and gives a nondegenerate pairing on that finite group. It satisfies and for . Its norm interpretation isFor the quadratic Hilbert symbol is symmetric and sign-valued. It is also characterized by the existence of a nonzero solution of . Moreover , and therefore . We now compute both the square-class groups and the pairing explicitly.
For odd , write with . An element is a square exactly when is even and the residue of is a square in . Necessity follows by reduction; sufficiency follows from the simple-root form of Hensel lemma applied to , since is then a unit. If is any unit with nonsquare residue, this givesThe nonsquare unit defines an unramified quadratic extension. Its field norms include every unit and have even valuation, as follows from the local norm calculation below. Thus for every unit, but . Finally , by symmetry and the preceding unit calculation. Bimultiplicativity now proves explicit quadratic Hilbert symbols over the p-adic numbers:Here the factors are Legendre symbols of the nonzero residues. The formula works for arbitrary integer valuations , since only their parity matters.
At , the square of every odd integer is one modulo eight. Conversely, for an odd , apply the strong form of Hensel lemma to at : the error has valuation at least three, while the derivative has valuation one. Thus the unit square classes of the p-adic integers are precisely their four residues modulo eight. Combining this with parity of the valuation givesFor an odd unit putInspection of the residues gives . It remains to compute six basis pairings. Explicit field norms giveindeed , , , and .
In contrast . To justify the obstruction even for rational 2-adic coordinates, write , with integral and at least one odd. Then is zero if exactly one is odd, and one if both are odd. A sum of squares equal to the unit consequently forces and exactly one coordinate odd. Its residue modulo four would then be one, whereas is three.
Similarly . If is a unit, the valuations of the two terms have opposite parity, so cannot cancel. It follows that is an odd integral element and is integral. Modulo eight its norm is then or , never . These signs, symmetry, and bimultiplicativity giveThe two boxed formulas determine the quadratic Hilbert symbol on all nonzero elements, including every rational prime .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 23 2 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write for the valuation ring of , for a uniformizer, , and for the residue field. A useful strong form of Hensel lemma is the following: if and satisfythen there is a root with , unique among roots in that ball. If , its distance satisfies .
Here is a proof by successive correction. Put , , andStop if a root has already been reached. Otherwise the correction has valuation . Integral Taylor expansions show that andThus grows at least geometrically, the corrections tend to zero, and completeness gives a limit with . The first correction has strictly smaller valuation than every later nonzero correction, proving the asserted distance. If are in the ball , thenThe second factor cannot vanish. Two roots in the ball must therefore coincide. This proves Hensel lemma; in particular a simple root modulo has a unique lift with that residue.
We use this to establish existence and uniqueness of unramified local extensions. For each integer , choose a monic irreducible polynomial of degree and lift it to a monic . Reduction and Gauss lemma show that remains irreducible over . LetThe ring is finite free and complete over , and . An element outside is invertible: lift an inverse from the residue field and invert the remaining by a convergent geometric series. Every nonzero element of is times such a unit, since in a finite free module. Thus is a discrete valuation ring, its fraction field is , andThis constructs an unramified extension of each degree.
Conversely, let be an unramified extension of degree . Its residue field is the unique degree- finite field extension . Choose a residue root of in it. The root is simple, so Hensel lemma lifts it to a root of in . This embeds into , and equality of degrees makes it an isomorphism. All residue conjugates lift in itself; hence is Galois, and reduction identifies its Galois group with the cyclic Galois group of the residue field extension. Its distinguished Frobenius automorphism reduces to .
There is exactly one unramified extension of each degree inside a fixed algebraic closure, andFor the middle equality, every nonzero element of lifts uniquely to a st root of unity, because that exponent is prime to . A primitive such residue generates the finite field extension, so its lift generates . Taking the union gives the maximal unramified extension, with Galois group .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 24 3 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the strong form of Hensel lemma: for and , ifthere is a unique polynomial root in the ball . In particular, a simple polynomial root modulo lifts uniquely in its residue class. Newton iteration gives when .
For odd , the setseach have elements, so they intersect. This gives a zero modulo with . The derivative with respect to is , nonzero modulo , so Hensel's lemma lifts while holding fixed. This is the elementary proof of isotropy of nondegenerate ternary quadratic forms over finite fields followed by a simple-root lift.
At , the residue vector is a zero, and the derivative is nonzero. At , use , for which the value is 52 and the derivative is nonzero modulo 13. Again a single-variable Hensel lift suffices.
At , hold and use . At , has valuation 3, while has valuation 1. Since , the strong Hensel inequality gives a polynomial root , indeed . This yields a nonzero solution.
At , suppose a nonzero solution exists and scale it so that all coordinates are in and at least one is a unit. Reduction modulo 7 gives . Since 5 is not a square modulo 7, both are divisible by 7. In the original equation their terms are then divisible by 49, so is divisible by 49 as well, forcing divisible by 7. This contradicts the normalization. Thus local isotropy of the five seven thirteen form gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 28 2 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A useful version is the strong form of Hensel lemma. Let be complete for a Non-Archimedean absolute value, let , and suppose satisfiesThen there is a unique root in the ball , and .
Put and . Starting with , apply Newton iteration over a valued field . Taylor expansion over the valuation ring givesfor integral . Inductively and . Indeed the Newton increment has size at most , so the derivative size is unchanged, and the new function value is bounded by the square of the increment. The increments tend to zero, and the ultrametric inequality makes the sequence Cauchy. Completeness supplies a root with the stated distance bound.
If are distinct points of the ball, their divided difference is plus a term of size at most , so is nonzero. Two roots in that ball are impossible. This proves the stated Hensel lemma. In particular a simple root modulo the maximal ideal lifts uniquely to a root in its residue class.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 28 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For , the even residue class contains exactly one root, by the simple-root form of Hensel lemma at : and is a unit. For the odd classes use the strong form of Hensel lemma:In both cases . Each gives exactly one root in . These two balls partition the odd integers, so there are no further roots.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 28 3 b ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
For each finite place , choose such that is the unramified quadratic extension. Such a choice exists even at residue characteristic two. At odd residue characteristic use a unit with nonsquare residue. At residue characteristic two, choose for which is irreducible over the finite residue field, lift to , and set . The lifted polynomial has unit derivative at every residue point and gives the unramified degree-two extension; its root is .
The square classes are open in . Indeed the strong form of Hensel lemma applied to at shows that is a square whenever . Thus any sufficiently close approximation to has square. By weak approximation for number fields, choose satisfying this at every finite . Then the local extensions are all unramified of degree two. At least one such condition ensures is not a square in . If contains no finite place, impose the same condition at one auxiliary finite place.
Set . At every specified finite prime there is one prime of above it, with ramification index one and residue degree two. Hence . The dyadic case is covered by the unramified construction, rather than by a nonexistent nonsquare residue unit in characteristic two.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 28 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
We count extensions up to -isomorphism. An extension of degree has a maximal unramified extension inside it, with , and is totally ramified of degree . The unramified extension of each degree is unique, so there are only finitely many possibilities for .
Fix and . The coefficient space of monic degree- Eisenstein polynomials is compact: its nonconstant nonleading coefficients lie in the compact maximal ideal, and its constant coefficient lies in the compact set . Each such polynomial has a root generating a degree- extension. For sufficiently close coefficients of a polynomial , the numbers and are arbitrarily small, while because the characteristic is zero. The strong form of Hensel lemma, applied in , supplies a root of as close to as desired. Choose the neighborhood so that the Krasner's lemma inequality holds. Then , and both degrees are , so the extensions are equal. Compactness gives a finite cover by such neighborhoods, proving finiteness of degree- extensions. If extensions are realized as subfields of a fixed algebraic closure rather than counted up to isomorphism, each has only finitely many embeddings, so that count is finite too.
For odd , write . The square map is bijective on by Hensel lemma, and the finite residue field has cyclic multiplicative group of even order. ThusThe quadratic extensions from square classes correspond to its three nontrivial classes. Representatives are , where is a unit with nonsquare residue. There are quadratic extensions: is unramified, while and are totally ramified. For completeness, two nonsquare parameters give the same extension only if their ratio is a square: writing and squaring forces , hence .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 26 1 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
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 satisfyingthere is a root withIf , 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 andWrite and . Taylor expansion over shows, inductively, that the increment has valuation , that , and thatIndeed, 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 factorsThe 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. ThereforeRepresentatives 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. HenceThe four unit square classes of the p-adic integers have representatives .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 26 2 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A number-field completion is finite. Let be the given number field and its completion. Normalize its absolute value on a field so that the restriction to is : if , use . Changing the original absolute value by this positive power does not change its completion. The closure of in is an isometric copy of .
Take a -basis of and let be its -span in . Choose a maximal linearly independent subset of that finite spanning set. The compact-sphere proof of finite-dimensional non-Archimedean norm equivalence applies to this basis too, so is complete and therefore closed in . Since is dense in , it follows that . Hence
Every finite extension is obtained this way. Let be finite. Use its extending Non-Archimedean absolute value, whose completeness and uniqueness were proved above. In characteristic zero the primitive element theorem gives ; scaling by a power of , we may arrange that it is integral. Its monic minimal polynomial belongs to . If the degree is one, is already the completion of .
Otherwise choosewhere runs over the conjugates in an algebraic closure. Approximate the coefficients of by integers, obtaining a monic of the same degree. Since , sufficiently accurate approximation gives and makes . The strong form of Hensel lemma in produces a root of with .
For completeness, the required Krasner's lemma follows from the unique extension of an absolute value to a finite extension. In a finite Galois extension containing , every automorphism fixing is an isometry, andIf , this contradicts the choice of . Thus every automorphism fixing fixes , and Galois correspondence gives . Since , equality follows. In particular is irreducible over , and therefore over .
Put . It is a number field, and the closure of in contains , so is dense. LetEvery element of the ring of integers of a number field has absolute value at most one: otherwise its highest-degree term would strictly dominate all other terms of a monic integer equation. Thus reduction into the residue field of makes a prime ideal, and . The restriction of the valuation to is the valuation of this prime, up to normalization. Indeed, the localized discrete valuation ring maps into , its units have absolute value one, and its uniformizer has absolute value less than one. Density and completeness giveThis proves the local realization as a completion of a number field.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 136 1 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The strong form of Hensel lemma says the following. Let be a discrete valuation on a complete field . If andthen has a root satisfying .
To prove it, apply Newton iteration over a valued field:The initial inequality says that the first correction has valuation greater than . Taylor expansion then shows inductively that , while the valuations of the corrections tend to infinity. Hence is a Cauchy sequence. Completeness gives a limit , and continuity gives .
Now decompose the multiplicative group asThe P-adic valuation givesand cubing is the identity on . Put . Expansion gives . Conversely, for , choose and put . For ,so the strong form of Hensel lemma produces a cube root in . Thus . Finally,is an isomorphism. Combining the valuation and principal-unit factors proves the cube-class group of the 3-adic numbers identity
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 136 1 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Assume , equivalently , and writeFor at ,The strong form of Hensel lemma therefore gives with . Taking yields . Hence every with , and in particular every sufficiently large , works.
At finitely many finite places of a number field, choose square-class parameters for the local unramified quadratic extensions. Local square classes are open, including at dyadic places by the strong form of Hensel lemma. Weak approximation for number fields gives a global parameter in all the prescribed local classes. Its quadratic extension is unramified of residue degree two at those places, so their extended prime ideals remain prime. If no finite place is prescribed, an auxiliary local nonsquare condition ensures the global extension is nontrivial.
Unit square classes of the p-adic integers 2026-10-06
For odd , a p-adic unit is a square exactly when its residue is a square, by the Hensel lemma. Its unit square-class group is . For , a unit is a square exactly when it is congruent to one modulo eight, by the strong form of Hensel lemma. The four square classes are represented by , giving .