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CHAPTER 1
Number Fields
1. Example : Quadratic number fields
Before we consider number fields in general, let us begin with the fairly concretecase of quadratic number fields. A
quadratic number field 
is an extension
K 
of 
Q
of degree 2. The fundamental examples (in fact, as we shall see in a moment theonly example) are fields of the form
Q
(
√
d
) =
{
a
+
b
√
d
|
a,b
∈
Q
}
where
d
∈
Q
is not the square of another rational number.There is an issue that arises as soon as we write down these fields, and it isimportant that we deal with it immediately: what exactly do we mean by
√
d
?There are several possible answers to this question. The most obvious is that by
√
d
we mean a specific choice of a complex square root of 
d
.
Q
(
√
d
) is then definedas a subfield of the complex numbers. The difficulty with this is that the notation“
√
d
” is ambiguous;
d
has two complex square roots, and there is no algebraic wayto tell them apart.Algebraists have a standard way to avoid this sort of ambiguity; we can simplydefine
Q
(
√
d
) =
Q
[
x
]
/
(
x
2
−
d
)
.
There is no ambiguity with this notation;
√
d
really means
x
, and
x
behaves as aformal algebraic object with the property that
x
2
=
d
.This second definition is somehow the algebraically correct one, as there is noambiguity and it allows
Q
(
√
d
) to exist completely independently of the complexnumbers. However, it is far easier to think about
Q
(
√
d
) as a subfield of the complexnumbers. The ability to think of 
Q
(
√
d
) as a subfield of the complex numbers alsobecomes important when one wishes to compare fields
Q
(
√
d
1
) and
Q
(
√
d
2
) fortwo different numbers
d
1
and
d
2
; the abstract algebraic fields
Q
[
x
]
/
(
x
2
−
d
1
) and
Q
[
y
]
/
(
y
2
−
d
2
) have no natural relation to each other, while these same fields viewedas subfields of 
C
can be compared more easily.The best approach, then, seems to be to pretend to follow the formal algebraicoption, but to actually view everything as subfields of the complex numbers. Wecan do this through the notion of a
complex embedding 
; this is simply an injection
σ
:
Q
[
x
]
/
(
x
2
−
d
)
→
C
.
As we have already observed, there are exactly two such maps, one for each complexsquare root of 
d
.Before we continue we really ought to decide which complex number we meanby
√
d
. There is unfortunately no consistent way to do this, in the sense that we
5
 
6 1. NUMBER FIELDS
can not arrange to have
 
d
1
 
d
2
=
 
d
1
d
2
for all
d
1
,d
2
∈
Q
. In order to be concrete, let us choose
√
d
to be the positivesquare root of 
d
for all
d >
0 and
√
d
to be the positive square root of 
−
d
times
i
for all
d <
0. (There is no real reason to prefer these choices, but since it doesn’treally matter anyway we might as well fix ideas.)With this choice, our two complex embeddings are simply
σ
1
:
Q
[
x
]
/
(
x
2
−
d
)
→
C
σ
2
:
Q
[
x
]
/
(
x
2
−
d
)
→
C
defined by
σ
1
(
a
+
bx
) =
a
+
b
√
d
;
σ
2
(
a
+
bx
) =
a
−
b
√
d.
Given any
a
+
bx
∈
Q
[
x
]
/
(
x
2
−
d
), we define its
conjugates
to be the images
σ
1
(
a
+
bx
) =
a
+
b
√
d
and
σ
2
(
a
+
bx
) =
a
−
b
√
d
.Note that these maps have the same image. This gives us yet another way toview the ambiguity: we can take
Q
(
√
d
) to be the subfield
{
a
+
b
√
d
|
a,b
∈
Q
}
of 
C
, and we remember that
Q
(
√
d
) has an
automorphism 
a
+
b
√
d
→
a
−
b
√
d.
This is the approach we will take; that is, we will regard
Q
(
√
d
) as a subfield of 
C
via our choice of 
√
d
, but we always remember that
√
d
is ambiguous, and thusthat we have an automorphism of this field exchanging
√
d
and
−√
d
. From thispoint of view, the conjugates of an element
a
+
b
√
d
are
a
+
b
√
d
and
a
−
b
√
d
.Let us now analyze these fields
K 
=
Q
(
√
d
). Note first that every
α
∈
K 
hasdegree either 1 or 2 over
Q
, and it has degree 1 if and only if it is actually in
Q
. Inparticular, if 
α /
∈
Q
then we must have
K 
=
Q
(
α
).Let us now compute the norms and traces from
K 
to
Q
. We take 1
,
√
d
as ourbasis for
K 
over
Q
. Multiplication by
α
=
a
+
b
√
d
takes 1 to
a
+
b
√
d
and
√
d
to
bd
+
a
√
d
, so the matrix for the linear transformation
m
α
is
a bdb a
.
The characteristic polynomial of this matrix is
x
2
−
2
ax
+ (
a
2
−
bd
2
)
.
ThusN
K/
Q
(
α
) =
a
2
−
bd
2
andTr
K/
Q
(
α
) = 2
a.
Note also that we haveN
K/
Q
(
α
) = (
a
+
b
√
d
)(
a
−
b
√
d
)andTr
K/
Q
(
α
) = (
a
+
b
√
d
) + (
a
−
b
√
d
)
.
That is, the norm of 
α
is the product of its conjugates and the trace of 
α
is thesum of its conjugates. This follows immediately from the fact that the conjugatesof 
α
are the two roots of the characteristic polynomial of 
α
.
 
2. COMPLEX EMBEDDINGS 7
It turns out that every quadratic field is of the form
Q
(
√
d
) for some
d
∈
Q
.In fact, in the case of quadratic fields it is actually possible to give a completeclassification, as described in the following theorem.
Theorem
1.1
.
Let 
K 
be a number field of degree
2
. Then 
K 
is isomorphic to
Q
(
√
d
)
for a unique squarefree integer 
d
= 1
.
Proof.
First we will show that every extension of 
Q
of degree 2 is isomorphicto one of the desired form. So let
K/
Q
have degree 2 and choose a primitive element
α
for
K 
, with minimal polynomial
f 
(
x
) =
x
2
+
ax
+
b,a,b
∈
Q
. By the quadratic formula we have
α
=
−
a
±√
a
2
−
4
b
2;put differently,
2
α
+
a
2
=
a
2
−
4
b.
Thus
K 
contains an element
β 
= 2
α
+
a
of square
a
2
−
4
b
∈
Q
. Note also that
a
2
−
4
b
is not a square in
Q
, for otherwise
f 
(
x
) would not be irreducible. It followsthat
β 
has degree 2 and thus is a primitive element for
K 
.
a
2
−
4
b
may not be asquarefree integer, but one sees easily from unique factorization in
Z
that we canfind some rational number
c
such that
c
2
(
a
2
−
4
b
) is a squarefree integer.
cβ 
stillgenerates
K 
over
Q
, and it is now in the form we considered above. This showsthat every extension of 
Q
of degree 2 can be generated by the square root of asquarefree integer.We now show that no two fields
Q
(
√
d
) with
d
a squarefree integer (other than1) are isomorphic. So let
d
1
and
d
2
be distinct squarefree integers and suppose thatthere is an isomorphism
ϕ
:
Q
(
 
d
1
)
∼
=
→
Q
(
 
d
2
)
.
We will show that
d
1
=
d
2
. Consider the element
α
=
ϕ
(
√
d
1
)
∈
Q
(
√
d
2
).
α
hasminimal polynomial
x
2
−
d
1
, so we read off thatN
K
2
/
Q
(
α
) =
−
d
1
andTr
K
2
/
Q
(
α
) = 0
.
Writing
α
=
a
+
b
√
d
2
, our formulas for the norm and trace imply that
a
= 0 and
b
2
d
2
=
d
1
. One now shows easily that the fact that
d
1
and
d
2
are squarefree integersimplies that
b
= 1 and
d
1
=
d
2
, as claimed.This sort of analysis does not work for any degree other than 2; even the cubicand quartic “formulas” are too complicated to use, and beyond that there aren’tany formulas at all.
2. Complex embeddings
A
number field 
is a finite extension of the rational numbers
Q
. (This is notquite the same as the definitions given in [
9
] and [
13
], but it seems to be the mostcommon definition.) We define the
degree
of a number field
K 
to be the positiveinteger [
K 
:
Q
]. The fundamental examples are fields of the form
Q
[
x
]
/
(
f 
(
x
))
of 00

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