nLab characteristic

The characteristic of a field (etc)

The characteristic of a field (etc)

Idea

It is well known that you cannot divide by zero, lest you be doomed to triviality. Conversely, in a field, you can divide by anything except zero. But this rule can be misleading, since it's possible that (even) an ordinary number can be zero when you don't expect it! The characteristic of a field states when (if ever) this happens.

It is straightforward to generalise from fields to other rings, and even rigs. See also characteristic zero.

Definition

For rings

Let KK be a rig (possibly a ring, possibly a commutative ring, possibly even a field). Then there exists a unique homomorphism ϕ K:K\phi_K\colon \mathbb{N} \to K to KK from the initial rig, which is the rig \mathbb{N} of natural numbers. The kernel of ϕ K\phi_K is an ideal of \mathbb{N}, which (by a well-known property of \mathbb{N}) is a principal ideal with a unique generator. This generator is the characteristic of KK, denoted charK\char K.

If KK is a ring, then we may use ϕ K:K\phi_K\colon \mathbb{Z} \to K instead, where \mathbb{Z} is the ring of integers. However, in this case, the kernel will usually have two generators, in which case we pick the positive one to get the same result as above.

For E E_\infty-rings

The concept of the characteristic has been generalized to E-∞ rings (Szymik 12, Szymik 13, Baker 14).

Properties

If nn is a natural number, then we suppress mention of ϕ K\phi_K to think of nn as an element of KK. If KK is a ring, then we do the same for a negative integer nn. We then have that n=0n = 0 in KK if and only if nn is a multiple of charK\char K.

The characteristic of a field must be either zero or a prime number. Basically, this is because the kernel of ϕ K\phi_K, for KK a field, must be a prime ideal. Similarly, the characteristic of an integral domain must be either zero or a prime number.

Every rig with positive characteristic is in fact a ring, since we have charK1=1\char K - 1 = -1. In other words, any rig other than a ring must have characteristic zero (although many rings also have that characteristic).

If there is any homomorphism at all between two fields, then they have the same characterstic. In other words, any extension of a field keeps the same characteristic.

Examples

If nn is a positive natural number, then the characteristic of /n=/n\mathbb{N}/n = \mathbb{Z}/n is nn. This ring is always a commutative ring, and it is a field if and only if nn is prime, in which case it is the prime field 𝔽 n\mathbb{F}_n. More generally, every finite field has positive prime characteristic.

For n=0n = 0, /0=\mathbb{N}/0 = \mathbb{N}, /0=\mathbb{Z}/0 = \mathbb{Z}, and the prime field 𝔽 0=\mathbb{F}_0 = \mathbb{Q} (the field of rational numbers) are no longer all the same, but they still all have characteristic 00. Every ordered field has characteristic 00. The real numbers and complex numbers each form fields of characteristic 00.

References

Discussion for E-∞ rings:

Last revised on February 1, 2024 at 14:49:27. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.