PlanetMath (more info)
 Math for the people, by the people. Sponsor PlanetMath
Encyclopedia | Requests | Forums | Docs | Wiki | Random | RSS  
Login
create new user
name:
pass:
forget your password?
Main Menu
Owner confidence rating: Very high Entry average rating: Very high
[parent] p-adic valuation (Definition)

Let $p$ be a positive prime number. For every non-zero rational number $x$ there exists a unique integer $n$ such that $$x = p^n\cdot\frac{u}{v}$$ with some integers $u$ and $v$ indivisible by $p$ . We define

\begin{displaymath}\vert x\vert _p := \begin{cases} (\frac{1}{p})^n \quad \mathr... ... \,\, x \neq 0, \ 0 \quad \mathrm{when} \,\, x=0, \end{cases}\end{displaymath}
obtaining a non-trivial non-archimedean valuation, the so-called $p$ -adic valuation $$|\cdot|_p:\,\mathbb{Q} \to \mathbb{R}$$ of the field $\mathbb{Q}$ .

The value group of the $p$ -adic valuation consists of all integer-powers of the prime number $p$ . The valuation ring of the valuation is called the ring of the p-integral rational numbers; their denominators, when reduced to lowest terms, are not divisible by $p$ .

The field of rationals has the 2-adic, 3-adic, 5-adic, 7-adic and so on valuations (which may be called, according to Greek, dyadic, triadic, pentadic, heptadic and so on). They all are non-equivalent with each other.

If one replaces the base number $\frac{1}{p}$ by any positive constant $\varrho$ less than 1, one obtains an equivalent $p$ -adic valuation; among these the valuation with $\varrho = \frac{1}{p}$ is sometimes called the normed $p$ -adic valuation. Analogously we can say that the absolute value is the normed archimedean valuation of $\mathbb{Q}$ which corresponds the infinite prime $\infty$ of $\mathbb{Z}$ .

The product of all normed valuations of $\mathbb{Q}$ is the trivial valuation $|\cdot|_\mathrm{tr}$ , i.e. $$\prod_{p\,\mathrm{prime}}|x|_p = |x|_\mathrm{tr} \quad \forall x\in\mathbb{Q}.$$




"p-adic valuation" is owned by pahio.
(view preamble | get metadata)

View style:

See Also: independence of $p$-adic valuations, integral element, order valuation, strict divisibility

Other names:  $p$-adic valuation
Also defines:  $p$-integral rational number, normed $p$-adic valuation, normed archimedean valuation, dyadic valuation, triadic valuation, pentadic valuation, heptadic valuation

This object's parent.
Log in to rate this entry.
(view current ratings)

Cross-references: trivial valuation, product, infinite prime, number, dyadic, rationals, divisible, lowest terms, denominators, p-integral rational numbers, ring, valuation ring, value group, field, valuation, non-archimedean, integer, rational number, prime number, positive
There are 11 references to this entry.

This is version 11 of p-adic valuation, born on 2005-01-04, modified 2008-05-23.
Object id is 6619, canonical name is PAdicValuation.
Accessed 10289 times total.

Classification:
AMS MSC13A18 (Commutative rings and algebras :: General commutative ring theory :: Valuations and their generalizations)

Pending Errata and Addenda
None.
[ View all 2 ]
Discussion
Style: Expand: Order:
forum policy

No messages.

Interact
post | correct | update request | add derivation | add example | add (any)