Theory of Valuations and an Introduction to Local Fields

Atharva Korde
July 4, 2016

1 Basics
Definition 1. A (multiplicative) valuation on a field K is a function

| · | : K → R+ ∪ {0}

satisfying the following properties:

1. |x| = 0 ⇐⇒ x = 0

2. |xy| = |x||y|
3. |x + y| ≤ |x| + |y| (The triangle inequality)
We define the ’distance’ function in the canonical way by

d : K × K → R+ ∪ {0} , d(x, y) = |x − y|

This induces a metric on K and thus a topology on K. The trivial valuation | · | satisfying |x| = 1
for all x 6= 0 induces the discrete metric on K and we exclude it for the rest of the results.
An example: (The p-adic absolute value on Q) Let r = ab , b 6= 0 be a rational number and write r
(uniquely) as
a0
r = pn 0 , n ∈ Z , p - a, p - b
b
−n
Define the p-adic value of r as |r|p = p . Check that | · |p is indeed a valuation on Q.
Definition 2. Two valuations on K are said to be equivalent if they induce the same topology on
K.
Theorem 1. Two valuations | · |1 and | · |2 on K are equivalent iff there exists a real number s > 0
such that ∀ x ∈ K,
|x|s1 = |x|2
Theorem 2. Let |·|1 , · · · , |·|n be pairwise non-equivalent valuations on a field K and let a1 , · · · , an ∈
K be given. Then, for each  > 0 there exists an x ∈ K satisfying |x − ai |i <  ∀ i = 1, 2, · · · , n.
Definition 3. A valuation | · | is called nonarchimedian if the set {|n| | n ∈ N} is bounded.

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Theorem 3. | · | is a nonarchimedian valuation iff it satisfies the strong triangle inequality:

|x + y| ≤ max{|x|, |y|}

The following theorem classifies all the valuations on Q upto equivalence.

Theorem 4. (Ostrowski’s theorem for Q) If | · | is a valuation on Q, then | · | is equivalent to a
p-adic valuation | · |p for some prime p or the usual absolute value | · |∞
Definition 4. A discrete (exponential) valuation on a field K is a function v : K → Z ∪ {∞}
satisfying the following properties:
1. v(x) = ∞ ⇐⇒ x = 0
2. v(xy) = v(x) + v(y)
3. v(x + y) ≥ min{v(x), v(y)}
For each discrete exponential valuation v on K, we get a multiplicative valuation (in the sense of
Definition 1) | · | by |x| = c−v(x) for some fixed real number c > 1.
Theorem 5. Let v be a discrete valuation on the field K. The subset

O := {x ∈ K | v(x) ≥ 0}

is a ring with group of units

O× = {x ∈ K | v(x) = 0}
This ring has the unique maximal ideal

m = {x ∈ K | v(x) > 0}

O is an integral domain with field of fractions K and O is integrally closed in K. This holds even
if the valuation is not assumed discrete.
The setup will be the same as above for the rest of the section.
Definition 5. F := O/m is called the residue class field of O and an element p ∈ O with
v(p) = 1 is called a prime element.
Theorem 6. O is a Discrete Valuation Ring (DVR). The non-zero ideals of O are mn = (pn ),
n ≥ 0. Further, for all n, there is a natural isomorphism

mn /mn+1 ∼
= O/m
Definition 6. For each n ∈ N, the n-th unit group U (n) is defined to be

U (n) = 1 + mn = {1 + x | x ∈ mn }

Observe that the chains

O ⊇ m ⊇ m2 ⊇ · · ·
O× ⊇ U (1) ⊇ U (2) ⊇ · · ·
form a local base of neighbourhoods for 0 and 1 respectively.

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2 Completions and Extensions
Let | · | be a valuation on a field K. The valuation induces a norm on K and hence makes K a
metric space. We can complete this field the same way as we complete a metric space. Let R be
the ring of all Cauchy sequences of elements in K and M be the maximal ideal of all sequences
converging to 0. Then,
K̂ := R/M
is a complete field with K embedded inside K̂ and the valuation extended to K̂ as |a| = lim |an |
n→∞
for a Cauchy sequence {an }n≥1 converging to a ∈ K̂. This completion is unique upto isomor-
phism.

As an example, we define Qp , the field of p-adic numbers to be the completion of the rationals
under the p-adic absolute valuation | · |p defined in section 0.1. We will look at this field further.
The following theorem characterizes all complete fields w.r.t an archimedian valuation.
Theorem 7. (Ostrowski) Let (K, |·|) be complete with |·| archimedian. Then (K, |·|) is isomorphic
to either R or C with the usual absolute value.
In view of the above, we only consider non archimedian valuations on a complete field, K. The
notations are the same as in section 0.1 after definiton 4.
Theorem 8. (Hensel’s Lemma) Suppose f (x) ∈ O[x] is a primitive polynomial factorizing into
relatively prime polynomials ḡ, h̄ ∈ F [x],

f (x) = ḡ(x)h̄(x) mod m

Then, f (x) factors as f (x) = g(x)h(x) in O[x] with deg g = deg ḡ and g = ḡ mod m, h = h̄
mod m
Using Hensel’s Lemma, one can prove the existence of an extension of a valuation on K to an al-
gebraic extension L/K, this extension is also unique.
Theorem 9. Let (K, | · |) be complete. Then, for a finite extension L/K of degree n, | · | can be
extended by the formula, for a ∈ L,
|a| = |NL|K (a)|1/n
This extension is unique and (L, | · |) is also complete.
Definition 7. Let (K, v) be a complete field and L/K a finite extension with v extending uniquely
to w on L. The ramification index, e is defined as e = [w(L× ) : v(K × )]. If F, F 0 are the residue
class fields of K, L respectively, then the inertial degree, f is defined as f = [F 0 : F ].
Theorem 10. Let L/K be finite separable. Then, the fundamental identity holds:

[L : K] = ef

We now look at how a valuation v on a general field K extends to a finite extension. We know
that v is canonically extended to the completion, Kv (which is denoted by v again) and this ex-
tends uniquely to the algebraic closure K v as v̄. The valuations on a finite extension L/K extend-
ing v are then characterized as follows:

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Theorem 11. If w is an extension of v to L, then w = v̄ ◦ τ for some K-embedding of L inside
K v . Further, two extensions, w1 = v̄ ◦ τ1 and w2 = v̄ ◦ τ2 are equivalent iff τ1 , τ2 are conjugate.
This immediately leads to the following corollary: If L/K is finite separable, then L = K(a)
for some a ∈ L. If the minimal polynomial of a, f (x) ∈ K[x] factors into irreducibles as f =
f1m1 f2m2 · · · frmr in Kv , the theorem immediately implies that the valuations wi extending v on L
correspond one-one to the irreducible factors fi . Further, we have the:
Theorem 12. (Fundamental identity) If L/K is finite separable, then we have
X X
[L : K] = [Lw : Kv ] = ew fw
w|v w|v

where the sum runs over all the extensions w to L and ew , fw are the ramification indices and in-
ertial degrees respectively for Lw /Kv .

3 Local Fields and Ramification

Definition 8. A local field is a field complete w.r.t a discrete valuation and has a finite residue
class field.
It is possible to prove that local fields of characteristic zero are precisely finite extensions of the p-
adic numbers, Qp . It is this case in which we will be primarily interested in the sequel and hence-
forth it is assumed that the characteristic is zero everywhere.

We continue with the setup in Definition 7. The extension L/K is called unramified if the exten-
sion F 0 /F is separable and [L : K] = [F 0 : F ]. The composite of two unramified extensions of
K (inside an algebraic closure) is again ramified. Hence, the composite of all unramified subexten-
sions of L/K is also unramified and is called the maximal unramified subextension. We denote
this by T . The extension L/K is called totally ramified if T = K.
Theorem 13. Let K be a characteristic zero local field and L/K be algebraic with residue field
extensions as F 0 /F . Then there is a one-to-one order preserving correspondence between finite
unramified subextensions of L/K and finite subextensions of F 0 /F .
We look at the case we are most interested in, i.e, a local field K/Qp obtained by adjoining a root
of unity.
Theorem 14. Let K = Qp (ω) where ω is a primitive n-th root of unity and suppose F/Fp is the
extension of residue fields. Suppose (n, p) = 1. Then
1. K/Qp is unramified of degree f where f is the smallest integer such that pf = 1 (mod n)
2. Gal(K/Qp ) ∼
= Gal(F/Fp ) ∼
= Z/f Z
On the other hand, if n = pm , then
1. K/Qp is totally ramified of degree φ(n).
2. Gal(K/Qp ) ∼
= (Z/nZ)×

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 3. 1 − ω is prime in the valuation ring of K and has norm p.
In both cases, the valuation ring of K is Zp [ω]
We will use the local reciprocity law from class field theory to classify the finite abelian extensions
of a local field.
Theorem 15. (Local Reciprocity Law) Let L/K be a finite abelian extension of the local field K.
Then there is an isomorphism,
Gal(L/K) → K × /NL|K L×
Further, there is a one-to-one correspondence between finite abelian extensions L/K and the open
subgroups (in the norm topology) N ⊆ K × of finite index. The correspondence is given by

L → NL = NL|K L×

and has the properties: L1 ⊆ L2 ⇐⇒ NL2 ⊂ NL1 , NL1 L2 = NL1 ∩ NL2 , NL1 ∩L2 = NL1 NL2 .
Finally we will need the structure of the multiplicative group of a local field.
Theorem 16. Let K be a local field with π a prime element in the valuation ring and q the cardi-
nality of its finite residue field (Hence, K contains the group µq−1 of the (q − 1)-th roots of unity).
Then,
K × = (π) × µq−1 × U (1)
We are ready to prove the Kronecker-Weber theorem for local fields:
Theorem 17. Let K/Qp be an abelian extension. Then K is contained in a cyclotomic extension
Qp (ω) for some root of unity, ω.
A sketch of a proof: The multiplicative group of Qp has the decomposition (p) × Z× p and we have,
s (n) ×
for suitable s and n, (p ) × U ⊆ NK|Qp K as the latter is open. By theorem 15, K is contained
in the field corresponding to the norm group (ps ) × U (n) = ((p) × U (n) ) ∩ ((ps ) × U (1) ). The
first of these corresponds to the extension Qp (µpn ) and the second corresponds to the unramified
extension of degree s, which is Qp (µps −1 ). Therefore, by theorem 15 again, K is contained in the
extension Qp (ω) where ω is a primitive pn (ps − 1)-th root of unity.
We also remark that the classical version of the Kronecker Weber theorem: An abelian extension
of Q is contained inside a cyclotomic extension, can be proved using the above

Acknowledgements
I thank my guide, Prof. Tanmay Deshpande for his support and guidance throughout my project.