Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2008 ii Paper 2 20G b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Units have norm . Norm is impossible modulo three. The least positive unit greater than one isIndeed its norm is one. A smaller positive norm-one unit would have , forcing , but then . Multiplying an arbitrary positive unit by powers of reduces it to , so minimality proves that all units are .
The equation with right side is impossible modulo three, since it would require . For norm , let , so and . For unit reduction for quadratic norm equations, change the sign of if necessary to make it positive, then multiply by a power of the fundamental unit to place it in . Its conjugate is divided by itself, soThe maximum on this interval occurs at its endpoints. Thus , and ; only lies in the half-open interval. Reversing the reduction gives all solutions:Every displayed element has norm , and the reduction proves completeness, including both signs of and .