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Give some intuition/motivation for the Frobenius element and decompos…
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…ition group
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user202729 committed Nov 3, 2023
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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions tex/alg-NT/finite-field.tex
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Expand Up @@ -182,6 +182,7 @@ \section{The Galois theory of finite fields}
\[ \sigma_p(x) = x^p \]
is an automorphism, and moreover fixes $\FF_p$.
\end{theorem}
This is called the Frobenius automorphism, and will re-appear later on in \Cref{ch:frobenius-element}.
\begin{proof}
It's a homomorphism since it fixes $1$,
respects multiplication,
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10 changes: 8 additions & 2 deletions tex/alg-NT/frobenius.tex
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@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
\chapter{The Frobenius element}
\chapter{The Frobenius element}\label{ch:frobenius-element}
Throughout this chapter $K/\QQ$ is a Galois extension with Galois group $G$,
$p$ is an \emph{unramified} rational prime in $K$, and $\kp$ is a prime above it.
Picture:
Expand All @@ -12,6 +12,12 @@ \chapter{The Frobenius element}
\QQ & \supset & \ZZ & (p) & \FF_p
\end{tikzcd}
\end{center}

We recall that the $p$-th power map $\sigma \colon \FF_{p^f} \to \FF_{p^f}$ is an automorphism, and it's called the Frobenius map on $\FF_{p^f}$.
We can try to extend this map to a $K \to K$ map by $\sigma(x) = x^p$, unfortunately this doesn't make it a field automorphism.

Surprisingly, it is nevertheless possible to extend this to some field automorphism $\sigma \in \Gal(K/\QQ)$.

If $p$ is unramified, then one can show there
is a unique $\sigma \in \Gal(K/\QQ)$ such that
$\sigma(\alpha) \equiv \alpha^p \pmod{\kp}$ for every prime $p$.
Expand All @@ -24,7 +30,7 @@ \section{Frobenius elements}
Assume $K/\QQ$ is Galois with Galois group $G$.
Let $p$ be a rational prime unramified in $K$, and $\kp$ a prime above it.
There is a \emph{unique} element $\Frob_\kp \in G$
with the property that
with the property that, for all $\alpha \in \OO_K$,
\[ \Frob_\kp(\alpha) \equiv \alpha^{p} \pmod{\kp}. \]
It is called the \vocab{Frobenius element} at $\kp$, and has order $f$.
\end{theorem}
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15 changes: 10 additions & 5 deletions tex/alg-NT/ramification.tex
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Expand Up @@ -262,22 +262,27 @@ \section{(Optional) Decomposition and inertia groups}
How are $\Gal\left( (\OO_K/\kp) / \FF_p \right)$
and $\Gal(K/\QQ)$ related?
\end{quote}
Absurdly enough, there is an explicit answer:
\textbf{it's just the stabilizer of $\kp$, at least when
$p$ is unramified}.

First, every $\sigma \in \Gal(K/\QQ)$ induces an automorphism of $\OO_K$, which induces a map
$\OO_K \to \OO_K/\kp$ by
\[ \alpha \mapsto \sigma(\alpha) \pmod\kp. \]
For this to induce a map in $\Gal\left( (\OO_K/\kp) / \FF_p \right)$, it's necessary that $\sigma(\kp) \subseteq \kp$. So, we consider the subset of automorphisms that fixes $\kp$:
\begin{definition}
Let $D_\kp \subseteq \Gal(K/\QQ)$ be the stabilizer of $\kp$, that is
\[ D_\kp \defeq \left\{ \sigma \in \Gal(K/\QQ) \mid \sigma\kp = \kp \right\}. \]
We say $D_\kp$ is the \vocab{decomposition group} of $\kp$.
\end{definition}
Then, every $\sigma \in D_\kp$ induces an automorphism of $\OO_K / \kp$ by
\[ \alpha \mapsto \sigma(\alpha) \pmod\kp. \]
Note that this definition is in fact equivalent to the set of $\sigma$ such that $\sigma(\kp) \subseteq \kp$,
because a field isomorphism fixes the ideal norm $\Norm(\kp)$.

So there's a natural map
\[ D_\kp \taking\theta \Gal\left( (\OO_K/\kp) / \FF_p \right) \]
by declaring $\theta(\sigma)$ to just be ``$\sigma \pmod \kp$''.
The fact that $\sigma \in D_\kp$ (i.e.\ $\sigma$ fixes $\kp$)
ensures this map is well-defined.

Surprisingly, every element of $\Gal\left( (\OO_K/\kp) / \FF_p \right)$ arises this way from some field automorphism of $K$.

\begin{theorem}[Decomposition group and Galois group]
\label{thm:decomposition}
Define $\theta$ as above. Then
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