In mathematics, a non-Archimedean ordered field is an

ordered field In mathematics, an ordered field is a field together with a total ordering of its elements that is compatible with the field operations. The basic example of an ordered field is the field of real numbers, and every Dedekind-complete ordered fiel ...

that does not satisfy the

Archimedean property In abstract algebra and analysis, the Archimedean property, named after the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes of Syracuse, is a property held by some algebraic structures, such as ordered or normed groups, and fields. The property, typica ...

. Examples are the

Levi-Civita field In mathematics, the Levi-Civita field, named after Tullio Levi-Civita, is a non-Archimedean ordered field; i.e., a system of numbers containing infinite and infinitesimal quantities. Each member a can be constructed as a formal series of the form ...

, the

hyperreal number 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 ...

s, the

surreal number In mathematics, the surreal number system is a totally ordered proper class containing the real numbers as well as infinite and infinitesimal numbers, respectively larger or smaller in absolute value than any positive real number. The surreals ...

s, the Dehn field, and the field of

rational function In mathematics, a rational function is any function that can be defined by a rational fraction, which is an algebraic fraction such that both the numerator and the denominator are polynomials. The coefficients of the polynomials need not be rat ...

s with real coefficients with a suitable order.

Definition

The

is a property of certain ordered fields such as the

rational number In mathematics, a rational number is a number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction of two integers, a numerator and a non-zero denominator . For example, is a rational number, as is every integer (e.g. ). The set of all ration ...

s or the

real number In mathematics, a real number is a number that can be used to measure a ''continuous'' one-dimensional quantity such as a distance, duration or temperature. Here, ''continuous'' means that values can have arbitrarily small variations. Every real ...

s, stating that every two elements are within an integer multiple of each other. If a field contains two positive elements for which this is not true, then must be an

infinitesimal In mathematics, an infinitesimal number is a quantity that is closer to zero than any standard real number, but that is not zero. The word ''infinitesimal'' comes from a 17th-century Modern Latin coinage ''infinitesimus'', which originally referr ...

, greater than zero but smaller than any integer

unit fraction A unit fraction is a rational number written as a fraction where the numerator is one and the denominator is a positive integer. A unit fraction is therefore the reciprocal of a positive integer, 1/''n''. Examples are 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, etc ...

. Therefore, the negation of the Archimedean property is equivalent to the existence of infinitesimals.

Applications

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

s, non-Archimedean ordered fields containing the real numbers as a subfield, may be used to provide a mathematical foundation for

nonstandard analysis The history of calculus is fraught with philosophical debates about the meaning and logical validity of fluxions or infinitesimal numbers. The standard way to resolve these debates is to define the operations of calculus using (ε, δ)-definitio ...

Max Dehn Max Wilhelm Dehn (November 13, 1878 – June 27, 1952) was a German mathematician most famous for his work in geometry, topology and geometric group theory. Born to a Jewish family in Germany, Dehn's early life and career took place in Germany. ...

used the Dehn field, an example of a non-Archimedean ordered field, to construct

non-Euclidean geometries In mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry consists of two geometries based on axioms closely related to those that specify Euclidean geometry. As Euclidean geometry lies at the intersection of metric geometry and affine geometry, non-Euclidean ge ...

in which the

parallel postulate In geometry, the parallel postulate, also called Euclid's fifth postulate because it is the fifth postulate in Euclid's ''Elements'', is a distinctive axiom in Euclidean geometry. It states that, in two-dimensional geometry: ''If a line segment ...

fails to be true but nevertheless triangles have angles summing to . The field of rational functions over

\R

can be used to construct an ordered field which is

complete Complete may refer to: Logic * Completeness (logic) * Completeness of a theory, the property of a theory that every formula in the theory's language or its negation is provable Mathematics * The completeness of the real numbers, which implies t ...

(in the sense of convergence of Cauchy sequences) but is not the real numbers.''Counterexamples in Analysis'' by Bernard R. Gelbaum and John M. H. Olmsted, Chapter 1, Example 7, page 17. This completion can be described as the field of

formal Laurent 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 ...

over

\R

. Sometimes the term complete is used to mean that the

least upper bound property In mathematics, the least-upper-bound property (sometimes called completeness or supremum property or l.u.b. property) is a fundamental property of the real numbers. More generally, a partially ordered set has the least-upper-bound property if eve ...

holds. With this meaning of

there are no complete non-Archimedean ordered fields. The subtle distinction between these two uses of the word complete is occasionally a source of confusion.

References

{{Infinitesimal navbox Ordered algebraic structures Real algebraic geometry Nonstandard analysis