Define the Lubin–Tate torsion by
The scalar endomorphisms make this a module over .
The Newton polygon or Weierstrass preparation theorem applied to the Lubin–Tate congruences shows that has exactly distinct roots in . More precisely, the quotient of the distinguished factors for and has degree , and its roots are precisely the points killed by but not by .
Choose such a point . If , write with a unit. Since is an automorphism, exactly when . Thus
is injective. Both sides have elements, so it is an isomorphism of modules. Therefore is a free module of rank one.