Ostrowski’s Theorem #
Ostrowski's Theorem for the field ℚ: every absolute value on ℚ is equivalent to either a
p-adic absolute value or to the standard Archimedean (Euclidean) absolute value.
Main results #
Rat.AbsoluteValue.equiv_real_or_padic: given an absolute value onℚ, it is equivalent to the standard Archimedean (Euclidean) absolute valueRat.AbsoluteValue.realor to ap-adic absolute valueRat.AbsoluteValue.padic pfor a unique prime numberp.
TODO #
Extend to arbitrary number fields.
References #
- [K. Conrad, Ostrowski's Theorem for Q][conradQ]
- [K. Conrad, Ostrowski for number fields][conradnumbfield]
- [J. W. S. Cassels, Local fields][cassels1986local]
Tags #
absolute value, Ostrowski's theorem
Preliminary lemmas #
Values of an absolute value on the rationals are determined by the values on the natural numbers.
The non-archimedean case #
Every bounded absolute value on ℚ is equivalent to a p-adic absolute value.
There exists a minimal positive integer with absolute value smaller than 1.
Archimedean case #
Every unbounded absolute value on ℚ is equivalent to the standard absolute value.
The standard absolute value on ℚ. We name it real because it corresponds to the
unique real place of ℚ.
Equations
Instances For
Given any two integers n, m with m > 1, the absolute value of n is bounded by
m + m * f m + m * (f m) ^ 2 + ... + m * (f m) ^ d where d is the number of digits of the
expansion of n in base m.
If f is not bounded and not trivial, then it is equivalent to the standard absolute value on
ℚ.
The main result #
Ostrowski's Theorem: every absolute value (with values in ℝ) on ℚ is equivalent
to either the standard absolute value or a p-adic absolute value for a prime p.