Sean Li Math 7370 Notes Spring 2013 Algebraic Number Theory Lecture 16 2/25/13 Discriminant (contd).

). Last time we looked at the discriminant D and showed it was invariant under choice of Z-basis for R. It is also an invariant of F , since R was determined by F . Quadratic Case. If F = Q( d), then D= d 4d if d 1 if d 1 (mod 4) . (mod 4)

For d = 5 we saw DF = 20, and R /R = Z2 Z /10. Ramication. A prime p ramies in F/ Q if and only if p|DF . In general only nitely many primes ramify in a nite extension. Minkowski. If F = Q, then |DF | > 1. Corollary. Some prime always ramies if F is not the trivial extension. Geometric Properties. D is related to geometric properties of R where R is canonically imbedded into Euclidean space. For example, there are n embeddings i of R into C where n is the degree of the extension F/ Q. Consider the set of embeddings with only one form of each conjugate pair. Let s denote the number of real embeddings and 2t be the number of complex embeddings. Then s + 2t = n. Using the s + t embeddings remaining we get an injection from R to Rs Ct = Rn . This is good because Rn is a Euclidean space with a set basis. R turns out to be a discrete lattice in Rn . D is related to the volume of a fundamental parallelogram (parallelepiped) formed from the generators of the lattice, and is also related to the closest lattice point to the origin. Other Important Consequences. (a) h < , where h is the class number. (b) The unit group of R is a nitely generated Z-module of rank s + t 1. Also we use R to denote the regulator, which is related to the volume of the fundamental parallelogram

generated by the units. In the real quadratic case,

d

lim hR =

where R may be large and h small even if d is big. Open problems in this area. For example, is h = 1 innitely often? Dimensions We want to show dim R = 1, where dim has to do with chains of prime ideals. Suppose 0 P 1 P2 Pn , where all the subsets are strict, and suppose a maximal chain has length n + 1. Then R has dimension n (could be 0 or ). When B is an extension of A, how is dim B related to dim A? The relation is not obvious. For example, F [X] F where dim F [X] = 1 and dim F = 0, while Q Z where dim Q = 0 and dim Z = 1. Note F [X1 , . . . , Xn ] has dimension n. Claim. dim R = dim Z = 1. Given any ring homomorphism f : A B, one can take the inverse image of a prime ideal P B, i.e. f 1 (P ), and get a prime ideal of A. Let the spectrum of a ring be its set of prime ideals. Then a ring homomorphism induces an inverse f 1 : Spec B Spec A. Localization. Given A, let S be a multiplicative subset of A, i.e. S is closed under multiplication. Then one denes S 1 A is the equivalence classes of { a }, where a b if and only if s s t u(at bs) = 0 for some u S. The rules for addition and multiplication are the usual ones for fractions. The equivalence classes form a ring. (In the case of an integral domain, this results in the eld of fractions.)

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