mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

, a field is a

set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

on which

addition Addition (usually signified by the Plus and minus signs#Plus sign, plus symbol ) is one of the four basic Operation (mathematics), operations of arithmetic, the other three being subtraction, multiplication and Division (mathematics), division. ...

subtraction Subtraction is an arithmetic operation that represents the operation of removing objects from a collection. Subtraction is signified by the minus sign, . For example, in the adjacent picture, there are peaches—meaning 5 peaches with 2 taken ...

multiplication Multiplication (often denoted by the cross symbol , by the mid-line dot operator , by juxtaposition, or, on computers, by an asterisk ) is one of the four elementary mathematical operations of arithmetic, with the other ones being additi ...

, and division are defined and behave as the corresponding operations on rational and real numbers do. A field is thus a fundamental

algebraic structure In mathematics, an algebraic structure consists of a nonempty set ''A'' (called the underlying set, carrier set or domain), a collection of operations on ''A'' (typically binary operations such as addition and multiplication), and a finite set of ...

which is widely used in algebra, number theory, and many other areas of mathematics. The best known fields are the field of rational numbers, the field of real numbers and the field of complex numbers. Many other fields, such as fields of rational functions, algebraic function fields,

algebraic number field In mathematics, an algebraic number field (or simply number field) is an extension field K of the field of rational numbers such that the field extension K / \mathbb has finite degree (and hence is an algebraic field extension). Thus K is a f ...

s, and ''p''-adic fields are commonly used and studied in mathematics, particularly in number theory and

algebraic geometry Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...

. Most cryptographic protocols rely on finite fields, i.e., fields with finitely many

elements Element or elements may refer to: Science * Chemical element, a pure substance of one type of atom * Heating element, a device that generates heat by electrical resistance * Orbital elements, parameters required to identify a specific orbit of ...

. The relation of two fields is expressed by the notion of a

field extension In mathematics, particularly in algebra, a field extension is a pair of fields E\subseteq F, such that the operations of ''E'' are those of ''F'' restricted to ''E''. In this case, ''F'' is an extension field of ''E'' and ''E'' is a subfield of ...

. Galois theory, initiated by Évariste Galois in the 1830s, is devoted to understanding the symmetries of field extensions. Among other results, this theory shows that

angle trisection Angle trisection is a classical problem of straightedge and compass construction of ancient Greek mathematics. It concerns construction of an angle equal to one third of a given arbitrary angle, using only two tools: an unmarked straightedge an ...

and

squaring the circle Squaring the circle is a problem in geometry first proposed in Greek mathematics. It is the challenge of constructing a square with the area of a circle by using only a finite number of steps with a compass and straightedge. The difficulty ...

cannot be done with a

compass and straightedge In geometry, straightedge-and-compass construction – also known as ruler-and-compass construction, Euclidean construction, or classical construction – is the construction of lengths, angles, and other geometric figures using only an ideali ...

. Moreover, it shows that quintic equations are, in general, algebraically unsolvable. Fields serve as foundational notions in several mathematical domains. This includes different branches of mathematical analysis, which are based on fields with additional structure. Basic theorems in analysis hinge on the structural properties of the field of real numbers. Most importantly for algebraic purposes, any field may be used as the

scalars Scalar may refer to: *Scalar (mathematics), an element of a field, which is used to define a vector space, usually the field of real numbers *Scalar (physics), a physical quantity that can be described by a single element of a number field such a ...

for a vector space, which is the standard general context for linear algebra. Number fields, the siblings of the field of rational numbers, are studied in depth in number theory. Function fields can help describe properties of geometric objects.

Definition

Informally, a field is a set, along with two

operation Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

s defined on that set: an addition operation written as , and a multiplication operation written as , both of which behave similarly as they behave for rational numbers and real numbers, including the existence of an

additive inverse In mathematics, the additive inverse of a number is the number that, when added to , yields zero. This number is also known as the opposite (number), sign change, and negation. For a real number, it reverses its sign: the additive inverse (opp ...

for all elements , and of a multiplicative inverse for every nonzero element . This allows one to also consider the so-called ''inverse'' operations of subtraction, , and division, , by defining: :, :.

Classic definition

Formally, a field is a

together with two

binary operation In mathematics, a binary operation or dyadic operation is a rule for combining two elements (called operands) to produce another element. More formally, a binary operation is an operation of arity two. More specifically, an internal binary op ...

s on called ''addition'' and ''multiplication''. A binary operation on is a mapping , that is, a correspondence that associates with each ordered pair of elements of a uniquely determined element of . The result of the addition of and is called the sum of and , and is denoted . Similarly, the result of the multiplication of and is called the product of and , and is denoted or . These operations are required to satisfy the following properties, referred to as ''

field axioms In mathematics, a field is a set on which addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division are defined and behave as the corresponding operations on rational and real numbers do. A field is thus a fundamental algebraic structure which is wi ...

'' (in these axioms, , , and are arbitrary elements of the field ): * Associativity of addition and multiplication: , and . *

Commutativity In mathematics, a binary operation is commutative if changing the order of the operands does not change the result. It is a fundamental property of many binary operations, and many mathematical proofs depend on it. Most familiar as the name of ...

of addition and multiplication: , and . *

Additive Additive may refer to: Mathematics * Additive function, a function in number theory * Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation * Additive set-functionn see Sigma additivity * Additive category, a preadditive category with f ...

and

multiplicative identity In mathematics, an identity element, or neutral element, of a binary operation operating on a set is an element of the set that leaves unchanged every element of the set when the operation is applied. This concept is used in algebraic structures su ...

: there exist two different elements and in such that and . *

Additive inverse In mathematics, the additive inverse of a number is the number that, when added to , yields zero. This number is also known as the opposite (number), sign change, and negation. For a real number, it reverses its sign: the additive inverse (opp ...

s: for every in , there exists an element in , denoted , called the ''additive inverse'' of , such that . * Multiplicative inverses: for every in , there exists an element in , denoted by or , called the ''multiplicative inverse'' of , such that . * Distributivity of multiplication over addition: . This may be summarized by saying: a field has two operations, called addition and multiplication; it is an abelian group under addition with 0 as the additive identity; the nonzero elements are an abelian group under multiplication with 1 as the multiplicative identity; and multiplication distributes over addition. Even more summarized: a field is a

commutative ring In mathematics, a commutative ring is a ring in which the multiplication operation is commutative. The study of commutative rings is called commutative algebra. Complementarily, noncommutative algebra is the study of ring properties that are not sp ...

where

0 \ne 1

and all nonzero elements are invertible under multiplication.

Alternative definition

Fields can also be defined in different, but equivalent ways. One can alternatively define a field by four binary operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) and their required properties. Division by zero is, by definition, excluded. In order to avoid existential quantifiers, fields can be defined by two binary operations (addition and multiplication), two unary operations (yielding the additive and multiplicative inverses respectively), and two nullary operations (the constants and ). These operations are then subject to the conditions above. Avoiding existential quantifiers is important in constructive mathematics and computing. One may equivalently define a field by the same two binary operations, one unary operation (the multiplicative inverse), and two constants and , since and .The a priori twofold use of the symbol "−" for denoting one part of a constant and for the additive inverses is justified by this latter condition.

Examples

Rational numbers

Rational numbers have been widely used a long time before the elaboration of the concept of field. They are numbers that can be written as fractions , where and are integers, and . The additive inverse of such a fraction is , and the multiplicative inverse (provided that ) is , which can be seen as follows: :

\frac b a \cdot \frac a b = \frac = 1.

The abstractly required field axioms reduce to standard properties of rational numbers. For example, the law of distributivity can be proven as follows: :

= & \frac a b \cdot \frac c d + \frac a b \cdot \frac e f. \end

Real and complex numbers

The real numbers , with the usual operations of addition and multiplication, also form a field. The complex numbers consist of expressions : with real, where is the imaginary unit, i.e., a (non-real) number satisfying . Addition and multiplication of real numbers are defined in such a way that expressions of this type satisfy all field axioms and thus hold for . For example, the distributive law enforces : It is immediate that this is again an expression of the above type, and so the complex numbers form a field. Complex numbers can be geometrically represented as points in the

plane Plane(s) most often refers to: * Aero- or airplane, a powered, fixed-wing aircraft * Plane (geometry), a flat, 2-dimensional surface Plane or planes may also refer to: Biology * Plane (tree) or ''Platanus'', wetland native plant * Planes (gen ...

, with

Cartesian coordinates A Cartesian coordinate system (, ) in a plane is a coordinate system that specifies each point uniquely by a pair of numerical coordinates, which are the signed distances to the point from two fixed perpendicular oriented lines, measured in t ...

given by the real numbers of their describing expression, or as the arrows from the origin to these points, specified by their length and an angle enclosed with some distinct direction. Addition then corresponds to combining the arrows to the intuitive parallelogram (adding the Cartesian coordinates), and the multiplication is – less intuitively – combining rotating and scaling of the arrows (adding the angles and multiplying the lengths). The fields of real and complex numbers are used throughout mathematics, physics, engineering, statistics, and many other scientific disciplines.

Constructible numbers

In antiquity, several geometric problems concerned the (in)feasibility of constructing certain numbers with

. For example, it was unknown to the Greeks that it is, in general, impossible to trisect a given angle in this way. These problems can be settled using the field of

constructible numbers In geometry and algebra, a real number r is constructible if and only if, given a line segment of unit length, a line segment of length , r, can be constructed with compass and straightedge in a finite number of steps. Equivalently, r is con ...

. Real constructible numbers are, by definition, lengths of line segments that can be constructed from the points 0 and 1 in finitely many steps using only compass and

straightedge A straightedge or straight edge is a tool used for drawing straight lines, or checking their straightness. If it has equally spaced markings along its length, it is usually called a ruler. Straightedges are used in the automotive service and ma ...

. These numbers, endowed with the field operations of real numbers, restricted to the constructible numbers, form a field, which properly includes the field of rational numbers. The illustration shows the construction of square roots of constructible numbers, not necessarily contained within . Using the labeling in the illustration, construct the segments , , and a semicircle over (center at the midpoint ), which intersects the perpendicular line through in a point , at a distance of exactly

h=\sqrt p

from when has length one. Not all real numbers are constructible. It can be shown that

\sqrt 2

is not a constructible number, which implies that it is impossible to construct with compass and straightedge the length of the side of a cube with volume 2, another problem posed by the ancient Greeks.

A field with four elements

In addition to familiar number systems such as the rationals, there are other, less immediate examples of fields. The following example is a field consisting of four elements called , , , and . The notation is chosen such that plays the role of the additive identity element (denoted 0 in the axioms above), and is the multiplicative identity (denoted 1 in the axioms above). The field axioms can be verified by using some more field theory, or by direct computation. For example, : , which equals , as required by the distributivity. This field is called a finite field with four elements, and is denoted or . The

subset In mathematics, Set (mathematics), set ''A'' is a subset of a set ''B'' if all Element (mathematics), elements of ''A'' are also elements of ''B''; ''B'' is then a superset of ''A''. It is possible for ''A'' and ''B'' to be equal; if they are ...

consisting of and (highlighted in red in the tables at the right) is also a field, known as the '' binary field'' or . In the context of computer science and Boolean algebra, and are often denoted respectively by ''false'' and ''true'', and the addition is then denoted

XOR Exclusive or or exclusive disjunction is a logical operation that is true if and only if its arguments differ (one is true, the other is false). It is symbolized by the prefix operator J and by the infix operators XOR ( or ), EOR, EXOR, , ...

(exclusive or). In other words, the structure of the binary field is the basic structure that allows computing with bits.

Elementary notions

In this section, denotes an arbitrary field and and are arbitrary

of .

Consequences of the definition

One has and . In particular, one may deduce the additive inverse of every element as soon as one knows . If then or must be 0, since, if , then . This means that every field is an integral domain. In addition, the following properties are true for any elements and : : : : : : if

The additive and the multiplicative group of a field

The axioms of a field imply that it is an abelian group under addition. This group is called the additive group of the field, and is sometimes denoted by when denoting it simply as could be confusing. Similarly, the ''nonzero'' elements of form an abelian group under multiplication, called the multiplicative group, and denoted by or just or . A field may thus be defined as set equipped with two operations denoted as an addition and a multiplication such that is an abelian group under addition, is an abelian group under multiplication (where 0 is the identity element of the addition), and multiplication is distributive over addition.Equivalently, a field is an

of type , such that is not defined, and are abelian groups, and ⋅ is distributive over +. Some elementary statements about fields can therefore be obtained by applying general facts of

groups A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic iden ...

. For example, the additive and multiplicative inverses and are uniquely determined by . The requirement follows, because 1 is the identity element of a group that does not contain 0. Thus, the trivial ring, consisting of a single element, is not a field. Every finite subgroup of the multiplicative group of a field is cyclic (see ).

Characteristic

In addition to the multiplication of two elements of ''F'', it is possible to define the product of an arbitrary element of by a positive integer to be the -fold sum : (which is an element of .) If there is no positive integer such that :, then is said to have characteristic 0. For example, the field of rational numbers has characteristic 0 since no positive integer is zero. Otherwise, if there ''is'' a positive integer satisfying this equation, the smallest such positive integer can be shown to be a prime number. It is usually denoted by and the field is said to have characteristic then. For example, the field has characteristic 2 since (in the notation of the above addition table) . If has characteristic , then for all in . This implies that :, since all other

binomial coefficient In mathematics, the binomial coefficients are the positive integers that occur as coefficients in the binomial theorem. Commonly, a binomial coefficient is indexed by a pair of integers and is written \tbinom. It is the coefficient of the t ...

s appearing in the binomial formula are divisible by . Here, ( factors) is the -th power, i.e., the -fold product of the element . Therefore, the

Frobenius map In commutative algebra and field theory, the Frobenius endomorphism (after Ferdinand Georg Frobenius) is a special endomorphism of commutative rings with prime characteristic , an important class which includes finite fields. The endomorphism m ...

: is compatible with the addition in (and also with the multiplication), and is therefore a field homomorphism. The existence of this homomorphism makes fields in characteristic quite different from fields of characteristic 0.

Subfields and prime fields

A '' subfield'' of a field is a subset of that is a field with respect to the field operations of . Equivalently is a subset of that contains , and is closed under addition, multiplication, additive inverse and multiplicative inverse of a nonzero element. This means that , that for all both and are in , and that for all in , both and are in .

Field homomorphism Field theory is the branch of mathematics in which fields are studied. This is a glossary of some terms of the subject. (See field theory (physics) for the unrelated field theories in physics.) Definition of a field A field is a commutative ri ...

s are maps between two fields such that , , and , where and are arbitrary elements of . All field homomorphisms are

injective In mathematics, an injective function (also known as injection, or one-to-one function) is a function that maps distinct elements of its domain to distinct elements; that is, implies . (Equivalently, implies in the equivalent contrapositiv ...

. If is also

surjective In mathematics, a surjective function (also known as surjection, or onto function) is a function that every element can be mapped from element so that . In other words, every element of the function's codomain is the image of one element of i ...

, it is called an isomorphism (or the fields and are called isomorphic). A field is called a prime field if it has no proper (i.e., strictly smaller) subfields. Any field contains a prime field. If the characteristic of is (a prime number), the prime field is isomorphic to the finite field introduced below. Otherwise the prime field is isomorphic to .

Finite fields

''Finite fields'' (also called ''Galois fields'') are fields with finitely many elements, whose number is also referred to as the order of the field. The above introductory example is a field with four elements. Its subfield is the smallest field, because by definition a field has at least two distinct elements . Clock group

The simplest finite fields, with prime order, are most directly accessible using modular arithmetic. For a fixed positive integer , arithmetic "modulo " means to work with the numbers : The addition and multiplication on this set are done by performing the operation in question in the set of integers, dividing by and taking the remainder as result. This construction yields a field precisely if is a prime number. For example, taking the prime results in the above-mentioned field . For and more generally, for any composite number (i.e., any number which can be expressed as a product of two strictly smaller natural numbers), is not a field: the product of two non-zero elements is zero since in , which, as was explained above, prevents from being a field. The field with elements ( being prime) constructed in this way is usually denoted by . Every finite field has elements, where is prime and . This statement holds since may be viewed as a vector space over its prime field. The dimension of this vector space is necessarily finite, say , which implies the asserted statement. A field with elements can be constructed as the splitting field of the polynomial :. Such a splitting field is an extension of in which the polynomial has zeros. This means has as many zeros as possible since the

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

of is . For , it can be checked case by case using the above multiplication table that all four elements of satisfy the equation , so they are zeros of . By contrast, in , has only two zeros (namely 0 and 1), so does not split into linear factors in this smaller field. Elaborating further on basic field-theoretic notions, it can be shown that two finite fields with the same order are isomorphic. It is thus customary to speak of ''the'' finite field with elements, denoted by or .

History

Historically, three algebraic disciplines led to the concept of a field: the question of solving polynomial equations,

algebraic number theory Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic ob ...

, and

. A first step towards the notion of a field was made in 1770 by

Joseph-Louis Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi Lagrangiacubic polynomial in the expression : (with being a third root of unity) only yields two values. This way, Lagrange conceptually explained the classical solution method of

Scipione del Ferro Scipione del Ferro (6 February 1465 – 5 November 1526) was an Italian mathematician who first discovered a method to solve the depressed cubic equation. Life Scipione del Ferro was born in Bologna, in northern Italy, to Floriano and Filip ...

and François Viète, which proceeds by reducing a cubic equation for an unknown to a quadratic equation for . Together with a similar observation for equations of degree 4, Lagrange thus linked what eventually became the concept of fields and the concept of groups. Vandermonde, also in 1770, and to a fuller extent, Carl Friedrich Gauss, in his '' Disquisitiones Arithmeticae'' (1801), studied the equation : for a prime and, again using modern language, the resulting cyclic Galois group. Gauss deduced that a regular -gon can be constructed if . Building on Lagrange's work,

Paolo Ruffini Paolo Ruffini (Valentano, 22 September 1765 – Modena, 10 May 1822) was an Italian mathematician and philosopher. Education and Career By 1788 he had earned university degrees in philosophy, medicine/surgery and mathematics. His works inclu ...

claimed (1799) that quintic equations (polynomial equations of degree 5) cannot be solved algebraically; however, his arguments were flawed. These gaps were filled by Niels Henrik Abel in 1824. Évariste Galois, in 1832, devised necessary and sufficient criteria for a polynomial equation to be algebraically solvable, thus establishing in effect what is known as Galois theory today. Both Abel and Galois worked with what is today called an

, but conceived neither an explicit notion of a field, nor of a group. In 1871

Richard Dedekind Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (6 October 1831 – 12 February 1916) was a German mathematician who made important contributions to number theory, abstract algebra (particularly ring theory), and the axiomatic foundations of arithmetic. His ...

introduced, for a set of real or complex numbers that is closed under the four arithmetic operations, the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

word ''Körper'', which means "body" or "corpus" (to suggest an organically closed entity). The English term "field" was introduced by . In 1881 Leopold Kronecker defined what he called a ''domain of rationality'', which is a field of rational fractions in modern terms. Kronecker's notion did not cover the field of all algebraic numbers (which is a field in Dedekind's sense), but on the other hand was more abstract than Dedekind's in that it made no specific assumption on the nature of the elements of a field. Kronecker interpreted a field such as abstractly as the rational function field . Prior to this, examples of transcendental numbers were known since Joseph Liouville's work in 1844, until Charles Hermite (1873) and Ferdinand von Lindemann (1882) proved the transcendence of and , respectively. The first clear definition of an abstract field is due to . In particular,

Heinrich Martin Weber Heinrich Martin Weber (5 March 1842, Heidelberg, Germany – 17 May 1913, Straßburg, Alsace-Lorraine, German Empire, now Strasbourg, France) was a German mathematician. Weber's main work was in algebra, number theory, and analysis. He is ...

's notion included the field F_''p''.

Giuseppe Veronese Giuseppe Veronese (7 May 1854 – 17 July 1917) was an Italian mathematician. He was born in Chioggia, near Venice. Education Veronese earned his laurea in mathematics from the Istituto Tecnico di Venezia in 1872. Work Although Veronese's work w ...

(1891) studied the field of formal power series, which led to introduce the field of ''p''-adic numbers. synthesized the knowledge of abstract field theory accumulated so far. He axiomatically studied the properties of fields and defined many important field-theoretic concepts. The majority of the theorems mentioned in the sections Galois theory, Constructing fields and Elementary notions can be found in Steinitz's work. linked the notion of orderings in a field, and thus the area of analysis, to purely algebraic properties.

Emil Artin Emil Artin (; March 3, 1898 – December 20, 1962) was an Austrian mathematician of Armenian descent. Artin was one of the leading mathematicians of the twentieth century. He is best known for his work on algebraic number theory, contributing lar ...

redeveloped Galois theory from 1928 through 1942, eliminating the dependency on the primitive element theorem.

Constructing fields

Constructing fields from rings

is a set, equipped with an addition and multiplication operation, satisfying all the axioms of a field, except for the existence of multiplicative inverses . For example, the integers form a commutative ring, but not a field: the reciprocal of an integer is not itself an integer, unless . In the hierarchy of algebraic structures fields can be characterized as the commutative rings in which every nonzero element is a unit (which means every element is invertible). Similarly, fields are the commutative rings with precisely two distinct

ideal Ideal may refer to: Philosophy * Ideal (ethics), values that one actively pursues as goals * Platonic ideal, a philosophical idea of trueness of form, associated with Plato Mathematics * Ideal (ring theory), special subsets of a ring considere ...

s, and . Fields are also precisely the commutative rings in which is the only

prime ideal In algebra, a prime ideal is a subset of a ring that shares many important properties of a prime number in the ring of integers. The prime ideals for the integers are the sets that contain all the multiples of a given prime number, together with ...

. Given a commutative ring , there are two ways to construct a field related to , i.e., two ways of modifying such that all nonzero elements become invertible: forming the field of fractions, and forming residue fields. The field of fractions of is , the rationals, while the residue fields of are the finite fields .

Field of fractions

Given an integral domain , its field of fractions is built with the fractions of two elements of exactly as Q is constructed from the integers. More precisely, the elements of are the fractions where and are in , and . Two fractions and are equal if and only if . The operation on the fractions work exactly as for rational numbers. For example, :

\frac+\frac = \frac.

It is straightforward to show that, if the ring is an integral domain, the set of the fractions form a field. The field of the rational fractions over a field (or an integral domain) is the field of fractions of the polynomial ring . The field of

Laurent series In mathematics, the Laurent series of a complex function f(z) is a representation of that function as a power series which includes terms of negative degree. It may be used to express complex functions in cases where a Taylor series expansion c ...

\sum_^\infty a_i x^i \ (k \in \Z, a_i \in F)

over a field is the field of fractions of the ring of

formal power series In mathematics, a formal series is an infinite sum that is considered independently from any notion of convergence, and can be manipulated with the usual algebraic operations on series (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, partial sum ...

(in which ). Since any Laurent series is a fraction of a power series divided by a power of (as opposed to an arbitrary power series), the representation of fractions is less important in this situation, though.

Residue fields

In addition to the field of fractions, which embeds injectively into a field, a field can be obtained from a commutative ring by means of a surjective map onto a field . Any field obtained in this way is a quotient , where is a maximal ideal of . If has only one maximal ideal , this field is called the residue field of . The ideal generated by a single polynomial in the polynomial ring (over a field ) is maximal if and only if is

irreducible In philosophy, systems theory, science, and art, emergence occurs when an entity is observed to have properties its parts do not have on their own, properties or behaviors that emerge only when the parts interact in a wider whole. Emergence ...

in , i.e., if cannot be expressed as the product of two polynomials in of smaller

. This yields a field : This field contains an element (namely the residue class of ) which satisfies the equation :. For example, is obtained from by adjoining the imaginary unit symbol , which satisfies , where . Moreover, is irreducible over , which implies that the map that sends a polynomial to yields an isomorphism :

\left(X^2 + 1\right) \ \stackrel \cong \longrightarrow \ \mathbf C.

Constructing fields within a bigger field

Fields can be constructed inside a given bigger container field. Suppose given a field , and a field containing as a subfield. For any element of , there is a smallest subfield of containing and , called the subfield of ''F'' generated by and denoted . The passage from to is referred to by '' adjoining an element'' to . More generally, for a subset , there is a minimal subfield of containing and , denoted by . The

compositum In mathematics, the tensor product of two fields is their tensor product as algebras over a common subfield. If no subfield is explicitly specified, the two fields must have the same characteristic and the common subfield is their prime subf ...

of two subfields and of some field is the smallest subfield of containing both and The compositum can be used to construct the biggest subfield of satisfying a certain property, for example the biggest subfield of , which is, in the language introduced below, algebraic over .Further examples include the maximal unramified extension or the maximal abelian extension within .

Field extensions

The notion of a subfield can also be regarded from the opposite point of view, by referring to being a ''

'' (or just extension) of , denoted by :, and read " over ". A basic datum of a field extension is its

, i.e., the dimension of as an -vector space. It satisfies the formula :. Extensions whose degree is finite are referred to as finite extensions. The extensions and are of degree 2, whereas is an infinite extension.

Algebraic extensions

A pivotal notion in the study of field extensions are

algebraic element In mathematics, if is a field extension of , then an element of is called an algebraic element over , or just algebraic over , if there exists some non-zero polynomial with coefficients in such that . Elements of which are not algebraic o ...

s. An element is ''algebraic'' over if it is a root of a polynomial with

coefficient In mathematics, a coefficient is a multiplicative factor in some term of a polynomial, a series, or an expression; it is usually a number, but may be any expression (including variables such as , and ). When the coefficients are themselves var ...

s in , that is, if it satisfies a polynomial equation :, with in , and . For example, the imaginary unit in is algebraic over , and even over , since it satisfies the equation :. A field extension in which every element of is algebraic over is called an algebraic extension. Any finite extension is necessarily algebraic, as can be deduced from the above multiplicativity formula. The subfield generated by an element , as above, is an algebraic extension of if and only if is an algebraic element. That is to say, if is algebraic, all other elements of are necessarily algebraic as well. Moreover, the degree of the extension , i.e., the dimension of as an -vector space, equals the minimal degree such that there is a polynomial equation involving , as above. If this degree is , then the elements of have the form :

\sum_^ a_k x^k, \ \ a_k \in E.

For example, the field of Gaussian rationals is the subfield of consisting of all numbers of the form where both and are rational numbers: summands of the form (and similarly for higher exponents) don't have to be considered here, since can be simplified to .

Transcendence bases

The above-mentioned field of rational fractions , where is an

indeterminate Indeterminate may refer to: In mathematics * Indeterminate (variable), a symbol that is treated as a variable * Indeterminate system, a system of simultaneous equations that has more than one solution * Indeterminate equation, an equation that ha ...

, is not an algebraic extension of since there is no polynomial equation with coefficients in whose zero is . Elements, such as , which are not algebraic are called

transcendental Transcendence, transcendent, or transcendental may refer to: Mathematics * Transcendental number, a number that is not the root of any polynomial with rational coefficients * Algebraic element or transcendental element, an element of a field exten ...

. Informally speaking, the indeterminate and its powers do not interact with elements of . A similar construction can be carried out with a set of indeterminates, instead of just one. Once again, the field extension discussed above is a key example: if is not algebraic (i.e., is not a root of a polynomial with coefficients in ), then is isomorphic to . This isomorphism is obtained by substituting to in rational fractions. A subset of a field is a

transcendence basis In abstract algebra, the transcendence degree of a field extension ''L'' / ''K'' is a certain rather coarse measure of the "size" of the extension. Specifically, it is defined as the largest cardinality of an algebraically independent subset ...

if it is algebraically independent (don't satisfy any polynomial relations) over and if is an algebraic extension of . Any field extension has a transcendence basis. Thus, field extensions can be split into ones of the form ( purely transcendental extensions) and algebraic extensions.

Closure operations

A field is algebraically closed if it does not have any strictly bigger algebraic extensions or, equivalently, if any polynomial equation :, with coefficients , has a solution . By the fundamental theorem of algebra, is algebraically closed, i.e., ''any'' polynomial equation with complex coefficients has a complex solution. The rational and the real numbers are ''not'' algebraically closed since the equation : does not have any rational or real solution. A field containing is called an '' algebraic closure'' of if it is algebraic over (roughly speaking, not too big compared to ) and is algebraically closed (big enough to contain solutions of all polynomial equations). By the above, is an algebraic closure of . The situation that the algebraic closure is a finite extension of the field is quite special: by the

Artin-Schreier theorem In mathematics, a real closed field is a field ''F'' that has the same first-order properties as the field of real numbers. Some examples are the field of real numbers, the field of real algebraic numbers, and the field of hyperreal numbers. ...

, the degree of this extension is necessarily 2, and is elementarily equivalent to . Such fields are also known as real closed fields. Any field has an algebraic closure, which is moreover unique up to (non-unique) isomorphism. It is commonly referred to as ''the'' algebraic closure and denoted . For example, the algebraic closure of is called the field of

algebraic number An algebraic number is a number that is a root of a non-zero polynomial in one variable with integer (or, equivalently, rational) coefficients. For example, the golden ratio, (1 + \sqrt)/2, is an algebraic number, because it is a root of the po ...

s. The field is usually rather implicit since its construction requires the ultrafilter lemma, a set-theoretic axiom that is weaker than the axiom of choice. In this regard, the algebraic closure of , is exceptionally simple. It is the union of the finite fields containing (the ones of order ). For any algebraically closed field of characteristic 0, the algebraic closure of the field of

is the field of Puiseux series, obtained by adjoining roots of .

Fields with additional structure

Since fields are ubiquitous in mathematics and beyond, several refinements of the concept have been adapted to the needs of particular mathematical areas.

Ordered fields

A field ''F'' is called an ''ordered field'' if any two elements can be compared, so that and whenever and . For example, the real numbers form an ordered field, with the usual ordering . The

states that a field can be ordered if and only if it is a formally real field, which means that any quadratic equation :

x_1^2 + x_2^2 + \dots + x_n^2 = 0

only has the solution . The set of all possible orders on a fixed field is isomorphic to the set of ring homomorphisms from the Witt ring of

quadratic form In mathematics, a quadratic form is a polynomial with terms all of degree two ("form" is another name for a homogeneous polynomial). For example, :4x^2 + 2xy - 3y^2 is a quadratic form in the variables and . The coefficients usually belong to a ...

s over , to . An Archimedean field is an ordered field such that for each element there exists a finite expression : whose value is greater than that element, that is, there are no infinite elements. Equivalently, the field contains no infinitesimals (elements smaller than all rational numbers); or, yet equivalent, the field is isomorphic to a subfield of . Illustration of supremum

An ordered field is Dedekind-complete if all upper bounds, lower bounds (see Dedekind cut) and limits, which should exist, do exist. More formally, each

bounded subset :''"Bounded" and "boundary" are distinct concepts; for the latter see boundary (topology). A circle in isolation is a boundaryless bounded set, while the half plane is unbounded yet has a boundary. In mathematical analysis and related areas of mat ...

of is required to have a least upper bound. Any complete field is necessarily Archimedean, since in any non-Archimedean field there is neither a greatest infinitesimal nor a least positive rational, whence the sequence , every element of which is greater than every infinitesimal, has no limit. Since every proper subfield of the reals also contains such gaps, is the unique complete ordered field, up to isomorphism. Several foundational results in calculus follow directly from this characterization of the reals. The

hyperreals In mathematics, the system of hyperreal numbers is a way of treating infinite and infinitesimal (infinitely small but non-zero) quantities. The hyperreals, or nonstandard reals, *R, are an extension of the real numbers R that contains numbers ...

form an ordered field that is not Archimedean. It is an extension of the reals obtained by including infinite and infinitesimal numbers. These are larger, respectively smaller than any real number. The hyperreals form the foundational basis of non-standard analysis.

Topological fields

Another refinement of the notion of a field is a topological field, in which the set is a topological space, such that all operations of the field (addition, multiplication, the maps and ) are continuous maps with respect to the topology of the space. The topology of all the fields discussed below is induced from a metric, i.e., a function : that measures a ''distance'' between any two elements of . The completion of is another field in which, informally speaking, the "gaps" in the original field are filled, if there are any. For example, any irrational number , such as , is a "gap" in the rationals in the sense that it is a real number that can be approximated arbitrarily closely by rational numbers , in the sense that distance of and given by the

absolute value In mathematics, the absolute value or modulus of a real number x, is the non-negative value without regard to its sign. Namely, , x, =x if is a positive number, and , x, =-x if x is negative (in which case negating x makes -x positive), an ...

is as small as desired. The following table lists some examples of this construction. The fourth column shows an example of a zero sequence, i.e., a sequence whose limit (for ) is zero. The field is used in number theory and -adic analysis. The algebraic closure carries a unique norm extending the one on , but is not complete. The completion of this algebraic closure, however, is algebraically closed. Because of its rough analogy to the complex numbers, it is sometimes called the field of complex p-adic numbers and is denoted by .

Local fields

The following topological fields are called '' local fields'':Some authors also consider the fields and to be local fields. On the other hand, these two fields, also called Archimedean local fields, share little similarity with the local fields considered here, to a point that calls them "completely anomalous". * finite extensions of (local fields of characteristic zero) * finite extensions of , the field of Laurent series over (local fields of characteristic ). These two types of local fields share some fundamental similarities. In this relation, the elements and (referred to as uniformizer) correspond to each other. The first manifestation of this is at an elementary level: the elements of both fields can be expressed as power series in the uniformizer, with coefficients in . (However, since the addition in is done using carrying, which is not the case in , these fields are not isomorphic.) The following facts show that this superficial similarity goes much deeper: * Any

first-order In mathematics and other formal sciences, first-order or first order most often means either: * "linear" (a polynomial of degree at most one), as in first-order approximation and other calculus uses, where it is contrasted with "polynomials of high ...

statement that is true for almost all is also true for almost all . An application of this is the Ax-Kochen theorem describing zeros of homogeneous polynomials in . * Tamely ramified extensions of both fields are in bijection to one another. * Adjoining arbitrary -power roots of (in ), respectively of (in ), yields (infinite) extensions of these fields known as

perfectoid field In mathematics, perfectoid spaces are adic spaces of special kind, which occur in the study of problems of " mixed characteristic", such as local fields of characteristic zero which have residue fields of characteristic prime ''p''. A perfecto ...

s. Strikingly, the Galois groups of these two fields are isomorphic, which is the first glimpse of a remarkable parallel between these two fields:

\operatorname \left(\mathbf Q_p \left(p^ \right) \right) \cong \operatorname \left(\mathbf F_p((t))\left(t^\right)\right).

Differential fields

Differential field In mathematics, differential rings, differential fields, and differential algebras are rings, fields, and algebras equipped with finitely many derivations, which are unary functions that are linear and satisfy the Leibniz product rule. A natur ...

s are fields equipped with a derivation, i.e., allow to take derivatives of elements in the field. For example, the field R(''X''), together with the standard derivative of polynomials forms a differential field. These fields are central to differential Galois theory, a variant of Galois theory dealing with linear differential equations.

Galois theory

Galois theory studies algebraic extensions of a field by studying the

symmetry Symmetry (from grc, συμμετρία "agreement in dimensions, due proportion, arrangement") in everyday language refers to a sense of harmonious and beautiful proportion and balance. In mathematics, "symmetry" has a more precise definit ...

in the arithmetic operations of addition and multiplication. An important notion in this area is that of finite Galois extensions , which are, by definition, those that are separable and normal. The primitive element theorem shows that finite separable extensions are necessarily simple, i.e., of the form :, where is an irreducible polynomial (as above). For such an extension, being normal and separable means that all zeros of are contained in and that has only simple zeros. The latter condition is always satisfied if has characteristic 0. For a finite Galois extension, the Galois group is the group of field automorphisms of that are trivial on (i.e., the

bijection In mathematics, a bijection, also known as a bijective function, one-to-one correspondence, or invertible function, is a function between the elements of two sets, where each element of one set is paired with exactly one element of the other s ...

s that preserve addition and multiplication and that send elements of to themselves). The importance of this group stems from the

fundamental theorem of Galois theory In mathematics, the fundamental theorem of Galois theory is a result that describes the structure of certain types of field extensions in relation to groups. It was proved by Évariste Galois in his development of Galois theory. In its most basic ...

, which constructs an explicit one-to-one correspondence between the set of subgroups of and the set of intermediate extensions of the extension . By means of this correspondence, group-theoretic properties translate into facts about fields. For example, if the Galois group of a Galois extension as above is not solvable (cannot be built from abelian groups), then the zeros of ''cannot'' be expressed in terms of addition, multiplication, and radicals, i.e., expressions involving

\sqrt /math>. For example, the symmetric group s  is not solvable for . Consequently, as can be shown, the zeros of the following polynomials are not expressible by sums, products, and radicals. For the latter polynomial, this fact is known as the Abel–Ruffini theorem :
: (and ),
: (where  is regarded as a polynomial in , for some indeterminates ,  is any field, and ).

The

tensor product of fields In mathematics, the tensor product of two fields is their tensor product as algebras over a common subfield. If no subfield is explicitly specified, the two fields must have the same characteristic and the common subfield is their prime subfie ...

is not usually a field. For example, a finite extension of degree is a Galois extension if and only if there is an isomorphism of -algebras :. This fact is the beginning of

Grothendieck's Galois theory In mathematics, Grothendieck's Galois theory is an abstract approach to the Galois theory of fields, developed around 1960 to provide a way to study the fundamental group of algebraic topology in the setting of algebraic geometry. It provides, in th ...

, a far-reaching extension of Galois theory applicable to algebro-geometric objects.

Invariants of fields

Basic invariants of a field include the characteristic and the transcendence degree of over its prime field. The latter is defined as the maximal number of elements in that are algebraically independent over the prime field. Two algebraically closed fields and are isomorphic precisely if these two data agree. This implies that any two uncountable algebraically closed fields of the same

cardinality In mathematics, the cardinality of a set is a measure of the number of elements of the set. For example, the set A = \ contains 3 elements, and therefore A has a cardinality of 3. Beginning in the late 19th century, this concept was generalized ...

and the same characteristic are isomorphic. For example, and are isomorphic (but ''not'' isomorphic as topological fields).

Model theory of fields

model theory In mathematical logic, model theory is the study of the relationship between formal theories (a collection of sentences in a formal language expressing statements about a mathematical structure), and their models (those structures in which the s ...

, a branch of mathematical logic, two fields and are called elementarily equivalent if every mathematical statement that is true for is also true for and conversely. The mathematical statements in question are required to be

sentences (involving 0, 1, the addition and multiplication). A typical example, for , ''n'' an integer, is : = "any polynomial of degree in has a zero in " The set of such formulas for all expresses that is algebraically closed. The Lefschetz principle states that is elementarily equivalent to any algebraically closed field of characteristic zero. Moreover, any fixed statement holds in if and only if it holds in any algebraically closed field of sufficiently high characteristic. If is an ultrafilter on a set , and is a field for every in , the ultraproduct of the with respect to is a field. It is denoted by :, since it behaves in several ways as a limit of the fields :

Łoś's theorem The ultraproduct is a mathematical construction that appears mainly in abstract algebra and mathematical logic, in particular in model theory and set theory. An ultraproduct is a quotient of the direct product of a family of structures. All facto ...

states that any first order statement that holds for all but finitely many , also holds for the ultraproduct. Applied to the above sentence , this shows that there is an isomorphismBoth and are algebraically closed by Łoś's theorem. For the same reason, they both have characteristic zero. Finally, they are both uncountable, so that they are isomorphic. :

\operatorname_ \overline \mathbf F_p \cong \mathbf C.

The Ax–Kochen theorem mentioned above also follows from this and an isomorphism of the ultraproducts (in both cases over all primes ) :. In addition, model theory also studies the logical properties of various other types of fields, such as real closed fields or

exponential field In mathematics, an exponential field is a field that has an extra operation on its elements which extends the usual idea of exponentiation. Definition A field is an algebraic structure composed of a set of elements, ''F'', two binary operations, ...

s (which are equipped with an exponential function ).

The absolute Galois group

For fields that are not algebraically closed (or not separably closed), the absolute Galois group is fundamentally important: extending the case of finite Galois extensions outlined above, this group governs ''all'' finite separable extensions of . By elementary means, the group can be shown to be the

Prüfer group In mathematics, specifically in group theory, the Prüfer ''p''-group or the ''p''-quasicyclic group or ''p''∞-group, Z(''p''∞), for a prime number ''p'' is the unique ''p''-group in which every element has ''p'' different ''p''-th roots. ...

, the

profinite completion In mathematics, a profinite group is a topological group that is in a certain sense assembled from a system of finite groups. The idea of using a profinite group is to provide a "uniform", or "synoptic", view of an entire system of finite groups. ...

of . This statement subsumes the fact that the only algebraic extensions of are the fields for , and that the Galois groups of these finite extensions are given by :. A description in terms of generators and relations is also known for the Galois groups of -adic number fields (finite extensions of ). Representations of Galois groups and of related groups such as the Weil group are fundamental in many branches of arithmetic, such as the Langlands program. The cohomological study of such representations is done using Galois cohomology. For example, the Brauer group, which is classically defined as the group of central simple -algebras, can be reinterpreted as a Galois cohomology group, namely :.

K-theory

Milnor K-theory is defined as :

K_n^M(F) = F^\times \otimes \cdots \otimes F^\times / \left\langle x \otimes (1-x) \mid x \in F \setminus \ \right\rangle.

The norm residue isomorphism theorem, proved around 2000 by Vladimir Voevodsky, relates this to Galois cohomology by means of an isomorphism :

K_n^M(F) / p = H^n(F, \mu_l^).

Algebraic K-theory is related to the group of invertible matrices with coefficients the given field. For example, the process of taking the determinant of an invertible matrix leads to an isomorphism K₁(''F'') = ''F''^×. Matsumoto's theorem shows that K₂(''F'') agrees with K₂^M(''F''). In higher degrees, K-theory diverges from Milnor K-theory and remains hard to compute in general.

Applications

Linear algebra and commutative algebra

If , then the

equation In mathematics, an equation is a formula that expresses the equality of two expressions, by connecting them with the equals sign . The word ''equation'' and its cognates in other languages may have subtly different meanings; for example, in ...

: has a unique solution in a field , namely

x=a^b.

This immediate consequence of the definition of a field is fundamental in linear algebra. For example, it is an essential ingredient of

Gaussian elimination In mathematics, Gaussian elimination, also known as row reduction, is an algorithm for solving systems of linear equations. It consists of a sequence of operations performed on the corresponding matrix of coefficients. This method can also be used ...

and of the proof that any vector space has a basis. The theory of

modules Broadly speaking, modularity is the degree to which a system's components may be separated and recombined, often with the benefit of flexibility and variety in use. The concept of modularity is used primarily to reduce complexity by breaking a sy ...

(the analogue of vector spaces over

ring Ring may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell :(hence) to initiate a telephone connection Arts, entertainment and media Film and ...

s instead of fields) is much more complicated, because the above equation may have several or no solutions. In particular systems of linear equations over a ring are much more difficult to solve than in the case of fields, even in the specially simple case of the ring

\Z

of the integers.

Finite fields: cryptography and coding theory

A widely applied cryptographic routine uses the fact that discrete exponentiation, i.e., computing : ( factors, for an integer ) in a (large) finite field can be performed much more efficiently than the

discrete logarithm In mathematics, for given real numbers ''a'' and ''b'', the logarithm log''b'' ''a'' is a number ''x'' such that . Analogously, in any group ''G'', powers ''b'k'' can be defined for all integers ''k'', and the discrete logarithm log''b' ...

, which is the inverse operation, i.e., determining the solution to an equation :. In elliptic curve cryptography, the multiplication in a finite field is replaced by the operation of adding points on an elliptic curve, i.e., the solutions of an equation of the form :. Finite fields are also used in coding theory and

combinatorics Combinatorics is an area of mathematics primarily concerned with counting, both as a means and an end in obtaining results, and certain properties of finite structures. It is closely related to many other areas of mathematics and has many appl ...

Geometry: field of functions

Functions on a suitable topological space into a field can be added and multiplied pointwise, e.g., the product of two functions is defined by the product of their values within the domain: :. This makes these functions a - commutative algebra. For having a ''field'' of functions, one must consider algebras of functions that are integral domains. In this case the ratios of two functions, i.e., expressions of the form :

\frac,

form a field, called field of functions. This occurs in two main cases. When is a

complex manifold In differential geometry and complex geometry, a complex manifold is a manifold with an atlas of charts to the open unit disc in \mathbb^n, such that the transition maps are holomorphic. The term complex manifold is variously used to mean a com ...

. In this case, one considers the algebra of holomorphic functions, i.e., complex differentiable functions. Their ratios form the field of meromorphic functions on . The function field of an algebraic variety (a geometric object defined as the common zeros of polynomial equations) consists of ratios of regular functions, i.e., ratios of polynomial functions on the variety. The function field of the -dimensional space over a field is , i.e., the field consisting of ratios of polynomials in indeterminates. The function field of is the same as the one of any open dense subvariety. In other words, the function field is insensitive to replacing by a (slightly) smaller subvariety. The function field is invariant under isomorphism and birational equivalence of varieties. It is therefore an important tool for the study of abstract algebraic varieties and for the classification of algebraic varieties. For example, the dimension, which equals the transcendence degree of , is invariant under birational equivalence. For

curves A curve is a geometrical object in mathematics. Curve(s) may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Curve (band), an English alternative rock music group * ''Curve'' (album), a 2012 album by Our Lady Peace * "Curve" (song), a 20 ...

(i.e., the dimension is one), the function field is very close to : if is smooth and proper (the analogue of being

compact Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to: * Interstate compact * Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines * Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in British ...

), can be reconstructed, up to isomorphism, from its field of functions.More precisely, there is an equivalence of categories between smooth proper algebraic curves over an algebraically closed field and finite field extensions of . In higher dimension the function field remembers less, but still decisive information about . The study of function fields and their geometric meaning in higher dimensions is referred to as birational geometry. The minimal model program attempts to identify the simplest (in a certain precise sense) algebraic varieties with a prescribed function field.

Number theory: global fields

Global field In mathematics, a global field is one of two type of fields (the other one is local field) which are characterized using valuations. There are two kinds of global fields: * Algebraic number field: A finite extension of \mathbb *Global function fi ...

s are in the limelight in

and arithmetic geometry. They are, by definition, number fields (finite extensions of ) or function fields over (finite extensions of ). As for local fields, these two types of fields share several similar features, even though they are of characteristic 0 and positive characteristic, respectively. This function field analogy can help to shape mathematical expectations, often first by understanding questions about function fields, and later treating the number field case. The latter is often more difficult. For example, the

Riemann hypothesis In mathematics, the Riemann hypothesis is the conjecture that the Riemann zeta function has its zeros only at the negative even integers and complex numbers with real part . Many consider it to be the most important unsolved problem in ...

concerning the zeros of the

Riemann zeta function The Riemann zeta function or Euler–Riemann zeta function, denoted by the Greek letter (zeta), is a mathematical function of a complex variable defined as \zeta(s) = \sum_^\infty \frac = \frac + \frac + \frac + \cdots for \operatorname(s) > ...

(open as of 2017) can be regarded as being parallel to the Weil conjectures (proven in 1974 by Pierre Deligne). One5Root

Cyclotomic fields are among the most intensely studied number fields. They are of the form , where is a primitive -th root of unity, i.e., a complex number satisfying and for all . For being a regular prime,

Kummer Kummer is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Bernhard Kummer (1897–1962), German Germanist *Clare Kummer (1873—1958), American composer, lyricist and playwright *Clarence Kummer (1899–1930), American jockey * Christo ...

used cyclotomic fields to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, which asserts the non-existence of rational nonzero solutions to the equation :. Local fields are completions of global fields. Ostrowski's theorem asserts that the only completions of , a global field, are the local fields and . Studying arithmetic questions in global fields may sometimes be done by looking at the corresponding questions locally. This technique is called the local-global principle. For example, the

Hasse–Minkowski theorem The Hasse–Minkowski theorem is a fundamental result in number theory which states that two quadratic forms over a number field are equivalent if and only if they are equivalent ''locally at all places'', i.e. equivalent over every completion o ...

reduces the problem of finding rational solutions of quadratic equations to solving these equations in and , whose solutions can easily be described. Unlike for local fields, the Galois groups of global fields are not known.

Inverse Galois theory In Galois theory, the inverse Galois problem concerns whether or not every finite group appears as the Galois group of some Galois extension of the rational numbers \mathbb. This problem, first posed in the early 19th century, is unsolved. There ...

studies the (unsolved) problem whether any finite group is the Galois group for some number field .

Class field theory In mathematics, class field theory (CFT) is the fundamental branch of algebraic number theory whose goal is to describe all the abelian Galois extensions of local and global fields using objects associated to the ground field. Hilbert is credit ...

describes the abelian extensions, i.e., ones with abelian Galois group, or equivalently the abelianized Galois groups of global fields. A classical statement, the Kronecker–Weber theorem, describes the maximal abelian extension of : it is the field : obtained by adjoining all primitive -th roots of unity.

Kronecker's Jugendtraum Kronecker's Jugendtraum or Hilbert's twelfth problem, of the 23 mathematical Hilbert problems, is the extension of the Kronecker–Weber theorem on abelian extensions of the rational numbers, to any base number field. That is, it asks for analogue ...

asks for a similarly explicit description of of general number fields . For imaginary quadratic fields,

F=\mathbf Q(\sqrt)

, , the theory of complex multiplication describes using

elliptic curves In mathematics, an elliptic curve is a smooth, projective, algebraic curve of genus one, on which there is a specified point . An elliptic curve is defined over a field and describes points in , the Cartesian product of with itself. If the ...

. For general number fields, no such explicit description is known.

Related notions

In addition to the additional structure that fields may enjoy, fields admit various other related notions. Since in any field 0 ≠ 1, any field has at least two elements. Nonetheless, there is a concept of field with one element, which is suggested to be a limit of the finite fields , as tends to 1. In addition to division rings, there are various other weaker algebraic structures related to fields such as quasifields,

near-field Near field may refer to: * Near-field (mathematics), an algebraic structure * Near-field region, part of an electromagnetic field * Near field (electromagnetism) ** Magnetoquasistatic field, the magnetic component of the electromagnetic near f ...

s and semifields. There are also

proper class Proper may refer to: Mathematics * Proper map, in topology, a property of continuous function between topological spaces, if inverse images of compact subsets are compact * Proper morphism, in algebraic geometry, an analogue of a proper map for ...

es with field structure, which are sometimes called Fields, with a capital F. The surreal numbers form a Field containing the reals, and would be a field except for the fact that they are a proper class, not a set. The nimbers, a concept from

game theory Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...

, form such a Field as well.

Division rings

Dropping one or several axioms in the definition of a field leads to other algebraic structures. As was mentioned above, commutative rings satisfy all field axioms except for the existence of multiplicative inverses. Dropping instead commutativity of multiplication leads to the concept of a '' division ring'' or ''skew field'';Historically, division rings were sometimes referred to as fields, while fields were called ''commutative fields''. sometimes associativity is weakened as well. The only division rings that are finite-dimensional -vector spaces are itself, (which is a field), and the

quaternion In mathematics, the quaternion number system extends the complex numbers. Quaternions were first described by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. Hamilton defined a quatern ...

s (in which multiplication is non-commutative). This result is known as the Frobenius theorem. The octonions , for which multiplication is neither commutative nor associative, is a normed

alternative Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

division algebra, but is not a division ring. This fact was proved using methods of algebraic topology in 1958 by Michel Kervaire, Raoul Bott, and John Milnor. The non-existence of an odd-dimensional division algebra is more classical. It can be deduced from the hairy ball theorem illustrated at the right.

Notes

References

* * * , especially Chapter 13 * * * * * * . See especially Book 3 () and Book 6 (). * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Field (Mathematics) Algebraic structures Abstract algebra