Introduction to p-adic Numbers

Drew Shulman
October 20, 2006
Abstract
Completing Q with respect to the usual metric is how we come
about R. In this paper, we introduce another metric on Q, dierent
from the usual distance metric, and thereby complete Q in a dierent
manner to obtain the p-adic numbers, Q
p
.
1 Introduction
For each prime p, there is an extension eld Q
p
of Q, where in Q
p
, the
sequence p, p
2
, p
3
, . . . approaches 0 quickly.
Take the following pictorial example. Lets say were working with the prime
p = 5 and the integers. We initially divide all integers into their class, modulo
5. We consider two numbers to be close if they are in the same class modulo
5. Then, we divide each of the ve classes into ve more classes, which then
denes classes modulo 25, and place the integers in their correct class. Now,
numbers in the same class modulo 25 are considered closer than they were
in the classes modulo 5.
For instance, the integers 1, 6, 51 are all in the same class modulo 5 (namely
1 mod 5). But dividing up into modulo 25, 1 and 6 are in dierent classes,
1
but 1 and 51 are in the same class. Thus, we consider 51 to be closer to 1
than 6 is. But we consider 6 to be closer to 1 than 4 is to 1.
We feel that two integers a and b are very close p-adically if a b mod p
n
for a large integer n.
2 p-adic Valuation
Denition 2.1 For a rational number a = 0 and a prime number p, we can
write
a = p
m
u
v
where m Z and u, v are not divisible by p. We dene the p-adic valuation,
denoted ord
p
(a), by ord
p
(a) = m. We set ord
p
(0) = .
Lemma 2.1 The next three equations / inequalities follow directly from the
denition.
1. ord
p
(ab) = ord
p
(a) + ord
p
(b)
2. ord
p
(a + b) min(ord
p
(a) , ord
p
(b))
3. ord
p
(a) = ord
p
(b) implies ord
p
(a + b) = min(ord
p
(a) , ord
p
(b))
where weve used the conventions += , , +n = = n+.
2
This leads us to the denition of convergence of a sequence of rational num-
bers.
Denition 2.2 A sequence of rational number {x
n
} converges to a rational number a p-adically
if
lim
n
ord
p
(x
n
a) = .
2
Example 2.1 Dene the following sequence {x
n
} where
x
n
= 1 5 + 5
2
5
3
+ + (5)
n
.
Clearly this sequence diverges in the sense of the ordinary metric, but well
show in the 5-adic metric, this sequence converges to
1
6
.
For any rational number a, we have
1 + a + a
2
+ + a
n

1
1 a
=
a
n+1
1 a
.
Replacing a = 5, we have
x
n

1
6
=
(5)
n+1
6
=
(1)
n
5
n+1
6
.
Now
lim
n
ord
5
__
x
n

1
6
__
= lim
n
ord
5
__
(1)
n
5
n+1
6
__
= lim
n
n + 1 = .
Lemma 2.2 Let p be a prime number, c a rational number, and ord
p
(c) 1.
Show that

i=0
c
i
=
1
1 c
p-adically.
Proof: Following the lead above, we have that
1 + c + c
2
+ + c
n

1
1 c
=
c
n+1
1 c
.
Thus
lim
n
ord
p
_

c
n+1
1 c
_
lim
n
n + 1 = .
Lemma 2.3 Show that 15+5
2
+(5)
n1
is the inverse of 6 in Z/5
n
Z
using

i=1
(5)
i
=
1
6
.
3
Proof: Cross-multiplying yields
6

i=1
(5)
i
= 1.
When we look at both sides modulo 5
n
, we have
6

i=1
(5)
i
mod 5
n
= 1 mod 5
n
=6
n1

i=1
(5)
i
mod 5
n
= 1.
For example, lets say were looking for the inverse of 6 modulo 5
4
= 625. By
our work above, the inverse should be x = 1 5 +5
2
5
3
= 104. Checking
this shows that x is indeed the inverse of 6 modulo 625. 2
Denition 2.3 For a rational number a = 0, we dene the p-adic absolute value,
denoted |a|
p
, by
|a|
p
= p
ordp(a)
and |0|
p
= 0.
Example 2.2 |p|
p
= p
ordp(p)
= p
1
=
1
p
and |p
3
|
p
= p
3
=
1
p
3
.
Theorem 2.1 Here are some properties of the p-adic absolute value.
1. |ab|
p
= |a|
p
|b|
p
2. |a + b|
p
max{|a|
p
, |b|
p
}; in other words |a + b|
p
|a|
p
+|b|
p
From the p-adic absolute value, we can dene a metric on Q.
Denition 2.4 The p-adic metric, denoted d
p
(a, b) (a, b Q), is dened by
d
p
(a, b) = |a b|
p
.
4
We can then redene the denition of convergence of a sequence.
Denition 2.5 A sequence of rational numbers {x
n
} converges p-adically to a
i
lim
n
d
p
(x
n
, a) = 0.
3 Completing Q
Back in analysis, we proved that a convergent sequence is a Cauchy sequence,
but the reverse isnt true. We later proved that in R, the reverse is true, and
it is so mainly because weve built R so it has this property.
George Cantor looked to dene a real number as the Cauchy sequences that
converge to that number. More precisely, let S be the set of all Cauchy
sequences of rational numbers and dene an equivalence relation on S by
saying that {x
n
} and {y
n
} are equivalent if for any rational > 0, there
exists N N such that for n N
|x
n
y
n
| < .
We then dene R to be the quotient of S by this equivalence relation.
Were going to do the same thing to create the extension Q
p
of Q. We call
a sequence {x
n
} of rational numbers a p-adic Cauchy sequence if given any
rational > 0, there exists N N such that for n, m N
d
p
(x
m
, x
n
) = |x
m
x
n
|
p
< .
Let S
p
be the set of all p-adic Cauchy sequences, and quotient out by the
same p-adic Cauchy sequence equivalence as was done above. Dene this
quotient to be Q
p
.
We identify a Q with the element of Q
p
as the sequence {x
n
} where x
n
= a
for all n.
We now extend p-adic valuation ord
p
(a), p-adic absolute value | |
p
, and p-
adic metric d
p
to Q
p
. For an element a Q
p
we dene ord
p
(a) Z {}
5
in the following way: If a = 0, we dene ord
p
(a) = . If a = 0, we choose
a p-adic Cauchy sequence of rational number {a
n
} that converges to a (i.e.
whose class is a). We can prove that ord
p
(x
n
) is constant for suciently
large n by using the three properties of the ord () function. (How do we
prove this?)
Example 3.1 Weve already shown that {x
n
} where x
n
=

n
i=0
(5)
n
con-
verges to
1
6
. The rst few terms are 1, 4, 21, 104, 521, . . .. The p-adic
valuation order of each of these is zero, which the rest of the sequence is.
Thus ord
5
_
1
6
_
= 0.
Since we have dened the ord () function, we dene the |a|
p
= 0 if a = 0 and
|a|
p
= p
ordp(a)
if a = 0. Dene the metric d
p
(a, b) = |a b|
p
just as we did
before. All of these extended denitions satisfy the properties given earlier
for rational numbers.
We now prove a theorem about Q
p
which is a characteristic that the real
numbers do not share.
Theorem 3.1 Let a
n
Q
p
for all n. The series

n=1
a
n
converges in Q
p
i |a
n
|
p
tends to 0 in R as n tends to (i.e. ord
p
(a) tends to as n tends
to ).
Remark: Notice that this is note true in R since the terms in

1
n
and

1
n
2
both tend to 0 in the usual metric, but the former does not converge,
whereas the latter does. The dierence in R and Q
p
arises from the fact that
|x + y|
p
max{|x|
p
, |y|
p
} in Q
p
, but we do not have |x + y| max{|x|, |y|}
in R.
Proof: Let {s
n
} be a sequence where s
n
=

n
i=1
a
n
. Then

n=1
a
n
converges
as a series i {s
n
} converges as a sequence.
() If {s
n
} converges, then we know it is Cauchy. This means that for every
rational > 0, we can nd N N such that n + 1 > n N implies
|a
n
|
p
= |s
n+1
s
n
|
p
< .
6
Thus |a
n
|
p
0 as n .
() If |a
n
|
p
0 as n 0, then for every rational > 0 we can nd N N
such that for n + 1 > n N we have |a
n+1
|
p
, |a
n
|
p
< . Then by property
2.11, we have
|s
n+1
|
p
= |a
n+1
a
n
|
p
max{|a
n+1
|
p
, |a
n
|
p
} <
proving convergence of {s
n
}. 2
4 Q
p
seen a dierent way
There is another way to dene Q
p
. We rst need a denition. For more
information on inverse (and direct) limits, see our discussion in the notes
Pronite Groups.
Denition 4.1 If a sequence of sets X
n
(n = 1, 2, 3, . . .) and maps f
n
:
X
n+1
X
n
(n = 1, 2, 3, . . .)

f
4
X
4
f
3
X
3
f
2
X
2
f
1
X
1
are given, the subset of

n1
X
n
dened by
lim
n
X
n
:=
_
{a
n
}

n1
X
n
| f
n
(a
n+1
) = a
n
for all n 1
_
is called the inverse limit.
Were going to let X
n
= Z/p
n
Z and let f
n
be the natural projection. Were
then looking at
Z/p
3
Z Z/p
2
Z Z/pZ.
An element of {a
n
} lim
n
Z/p
n
Z can then be thought of as follows: In
Z/pZ, a
1
is in one of the p equivalence classes. In Z/p
2
Z, a
2
is in one of the
p
2
equivalence classes satisfying f
1
(a
2
) = a
1
. Thus, if we split each of the
7
p equivalence classes into p more equivalence classes, then a
2
will have been
in the same equivalence class as a
1
. a
3
is then in one of the p
3
equivalence
classes, which is in the same equivalence class as a
2
in Z/p
2
Z.
Denition 4.2 Dene
Z
p
= {a Q
p
| ord
p
(a) 0}.
Z
p
is a subring of Q
p
and an element of Z
p
is called a p-adic integer.
What well aim to show is that lim
n
Z/p
n
Z

= Z
p
. Here is the map of our
isomorphism: Let {a
n
} lim
n
Z/p
n
Z. For each n 1, choose an integer
x
n
such that f
n1
(x
n
) = a
n
. Thus, by our construction, x
n
is in the same
equivalence class as a
1
in Z/pZ. For n 2, x
n
is in the same equivalence
class as a
2
in Z/p
2
Z. For n 3, x
n
is in the same equivalence class as a
3
in Z/p
3
Z, and so on. Thus the sequence {x
n
} converges to something, since
|x
m
x
n
|
1
p
N
if m, n N. Now, it is clear that ord
p
(x
n
) 0 for all n since
we chose the x
n
s to be integers. Thus, because this sequence is Cauchy, it
is in Q
p
, and because ord
p
(x
n
) 0 for all n, the limit must be in Z
p
.
This denes our map: A sequence
{a
n
} lim
n
Z/p
n
Z lim
n
x
n
.
In order to dene Q
p
from here, well dene a ring structure on lim
n
Z/p
n
Z

=
Z
p
in the following manner: If {a
n
}, {b
n
} Z
p
, then the sum and product of
these sequences are {a
n
+ b
n
} and {a
n
b
n
}, respectively. We can then show
that Z
p
is an integral domain, and so has a eld of fractions (quotient eld),
which well call Q
p
.
5 p-adic Representation
Q
p
can also be realized to be the set
Q
p
=
_

n=m
a
n
p
n
| m Z, a
n
{0, 1, . . . , p 1}
_
.
8
Every element of Q
p
is represented by a sum of this form in a unique way.
This is how we would like to think of the p-adic numbers; instead of thinking
of them as Cauchy sequences of rational numbers modulo some relation. This
sum denition is much more concrete, and in general, easier to work with.
9