Totally imaginary number field

A number field is totally imaginary if it has no embedding into the real numbers. Its embeddings into the complex numbers occur entirely in conjugate pairs. This is also called totally complex; it does not assert that every element of the field is nonreal.

A CM-field is a totally imaginary number field that is a quadratic extension of a totally real number field. Its nontrivial automorphism over that real subfield acts as complex conjugation in every complex embedding. Imaginary quadratic number fields are examples. An arbitrary totally imaginary number field need not have such a real subfield of index two.

For a CM-field, put $c$ for conjugation and $E_K={\mathcal{O}}_K^{\times }$. The map $u\mapsto u/c(u)$ takes values in the cyclic group ${\mu }_K$ of roots of unity: all conjugates have absolute value one, and the Kronecker theorem on algebraic integers in the unit disk applies. Its kernel is $E_{K^{+}}$, while its image on ${\mu }_K$ is ${\mu }_K^2$. It therefore embeds $E_K/(E_{K^{+}}{\mu }_K)$ into ${\mu }_K/{\mu }_K^2$, a group of order two. This proves the index bound without assuming that every unit is a real unit times a root of unity.