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VIGRE Seminar:Introducing the

p

VIGRE Seminar:Introducing the

p

-adic numbers

James Stankewicz

University of Georgia

Oct 9, 2007

VIGRE Seminar:Introducing the

p

-adic numbersWhere did they come from?

We begin with some history:It’s been known for a long time that for any positive integer

M

, wecan write any non-negative integer

n

uniquely in “base

M

”:

n

=

m

0

+

m

1

M

+

m

2

M

2

+

···

+

m

k

M

k

That is: the

m

i

are unique integers such that

0

≤

m

i

≤

M

−

1

.

VIGRE Seminar:Introducing the

p

-adic numbersWhere did they come from?

We begin with some history:It’s been known for a long time that for any positive integer

M

, wecan write any non-negative integer

n

uniquely in “base

M

”:

n

=

m

0

+

m

1

M

+

m

2

M

2

+

···

+

m

k

M

k

That is: the

m

i

are unique integers such that

0

≤

m

i

≤

M

−

1

.When the notions of “ideals” and “divisors” were introduced byDedekind and Kroenecker in the late 19th century, acorrespondence emerged between prime numbers

p

and theelements

z

−

c

in

C

[

z

]

.Namely, the prime numbers

p

generate the prime ideals of

Z

whilethe linear polynomials generate the prime ideals of

C

[

z

]

.

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