Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 4 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
Put , the ring of invariants. It is an integral domain because it is a subring of the domain . Embed in in the evident way.
Suppose is an integral element over . Its monic equation has coefficients in , so is integral over . Since is a normal domain, .
Write with and . Each ring automorphism in extends to the fraction field by acting on numerator and denominator, and fixes this fraction. Hence . We have proved that is integrally closed in its own fraction field:This normality of a ring of invariants argument actually works for any group; finiteness is not needed for this conclusion. For finite , there is additionally an integral extension , since for each the orbit polynomial under a finite automorphism groupis monic, has coefficients fixed by and vanishes at . Neither argument divides by , so it is valid when the characteristic divides the group order. Here normality means integral closedness of a domain.
Ring of invariants 2026-10-07
For a group acting on a ring by ring automorphisms, the elements fixed by every group element form a subring containing . For finite acting on a commutative ring, each satisfies the monic orbit equation , whose coefficients are fixed. Thus is integral over its invariant subring. This uses an orbit product, not division by the group order.