WEEK 02

Ring homomorphisms
Denition. Let R and S be rings. A function : R S is called a homomorphism if ( a + b) = a + b and ( ab) = ( a)(b) for all a, b R. A homomorphism that is bijective is called an isomorphism. For example, let R be the ring of all upper triangular 3 3 matrices over Z. It is fairly easy to see that : R Z dened by a b c 0 d e = f 0 0 f is a homomorphism. The relevant calculations are as follows: a b c a b c aa ab + bd ac + be + c f 0 d e 0 d e = 0 dd de + e f 0 0 f 0 0 f 0 0 ff

= ff

a = 0 0 and a 0 0 b d 0 c a e+0 f 0 b d 0

b d 0

c a e 0 f 0

b d 0

c e f

c a+a e = 0 f 0

b+b d+d 0

c+c e+e f+f b d 0 c e . f

= f+f a b = 0 d 0 0

c a e + 0 f 0

Of course, we could have used n n upper triangular matrices over any ring instead of 3 3 upper triangular matrices over Z, and we could have picked on any of the diagonal entries. Furthermore, lower triangular matrices work just as well. Here is another variation on the theme: the function from 3 3 upper triangular matrices to 2 2 upper triangular matrices given by a b c 0 d e a b 0 d 0 0 f is a homomorphism. Evaluation homomorphisms Probably the homomorphisms that are most important in this course are evaluation homomorphisms. If T is a commutative ring and t T then the mapping t : T [ x] T dened by a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 + + ad xd a0 + a1 t + a2 t2 + + ad td 1

is called evaluation at x = t. The proof that t is a homomorphism from T [ x] to T is rather trivial, and is given on p. 21 of [RFGT]. There is only one small trap: it is easy to overlook that fact that the proof does make use of the assumption that T is commutative. Specically, the proof that t preserves multiplication uses the fact that at = ta for all a T . Of course, if R is a subring of T then R[ x] may be regarded as a subring of T [ x], and the restriction of t to R[ x] is a homomorphism from R[ x] to T . In this course we shall mainly be interested in the case that R and T are elds. For example, taking R = Q (the eld of rational numbers) and T = R (the eld of real numbers) we see that there is a homomorphism Q[ x] R such that f ( x) f ( 3 2) for all polynomials f ( x) Q[ x]. The following theorem gives the most general version of the evaluation homomorphism idea that we are likely to use. Theorem. Let : R T be a ring homomorphism, and let t be an element of T such that t(r) = (r)t for all r R. Then there is a homomorphism R[ x] T given by a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 + + ad xd ( a0 ) + ( a1 )t + ( a2 )t2 + + ( ad )td for all polynomials a0 + a1 x + a2 x2 + + ad xd R[ x]. Reduction modulo a positive integer Let n be a xed positive integer. We say that integers a, b are congruent modulo n if a b is a multiple of n. The notation used for this is a b (mod n). Thus, a b (mod n) means that a b = kn for some integer k. Congruence modulo n splits Z into n congruence classes, having the property that arbitrary a, b Z lie in the same congruence class if and only if they are congruent modulo n. As a temporary notation, let us write a for the congruence class containing a. That is, a = { b Z | b a (mod n) }. It is not hard to prove that for any given pair of congruence classes a and b (modulo the xed integer n) there is a unique congruence class that contains all the products a b such that a a and b b. We dene this congruence class to be the product of a and b. Thus we have a well-dened multiplication operation on the set of all congruence classes such that a b = ab for all a, b Z. Similarly, there is a welldened addition of congruence classes satisfying a + b = a + b for all a, b Z . It is straightforward to check that the set of all congruence classes modulo n becomes a ring under these operations; it is known as the ring of integers modulo n. In this course we shall use the notation Zn for the set for this ring, but be warned that in the wider mathematical community it is more common to use Zn for the ring of n-adic integers, which is something else. We have sketched the above construction simply for the sake of the following result, which gives us another class of examples of homomorphisms.

We shall also use the notation k|m, which you should read as k divides m, to mean that m is a multiple of k.
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Theorem. Let n be any positive integer. With the notation as above, there is a homomorphism : Z Zn given by a = a for all a Z.

The eld of fractions of an integral domain

On p. 23 of [RFGT] there is a brief discussion of equivalence relations, which you will also have met in a variety of other courses. Congruence relations on Z, as discussed above, are good examples of equivalence relations. Next week we shall discuss generalizations of these congruence relations in other rings. In mathematics, as in everyday life, the point calling things equivalent is so that they can be identied with each other. If is an equivalence on S and x S then the equivalence class containing x is the set x = { y S | y x }. Since all elements of x are equivalent to each other, we often do not want to distinguish between them. To make this idea more rigorous, we dene S = { x | x S }, the set whose elements are equivalence classes of elements of S. We can think of S as that which is obtained when all equivalent elements of S coalesce. The set S is called the quotient of S by the equivalence . The notation S/, rather than S, is commonly used. Consider now the set S = { ( a, b) | a, b Z and b = 0 }, and dene a relation on S by the rule that ( a, b) (c, d) if and only if ad = bc. It is not hard to show that is an equivalence relation. Furthermore, ( a, b) (c, d) if and only if the fractions a/b and c/d are equal. Thus the equivalence classes are in one to one correspondence with the elements of the eld of rational numbers: if Q the corresponding equivalence class is the set { ( a, b) S | a/b = }. This means that the set of equivalence classes can be regarded as a eld isomorphic to Q, addition and multiplication of equivalence classes being dened to agree with addition and multiplication of the corresponding rational numbers. We now generalize the above ideas and show how a eld may be constructed from any integral domain. The details can be found in [RFGT] (p. 23 to p. 26). Given an integral domain R, put S = { ( a, b) | a, b R and b = 0 }, and dene a relation on S by ( a, b) (c, d) if and only if ad = bc. This is an equivalence relation. Write a/b for the equivalence class containing ( a, b), and let F = { a/b | ( a, b) S }, the quotient of S by . There are well-dened operations of addition and multiplication on F such that a/b + c/d = ( ad + bc)/bd and 3

( a/b)(c/d) = ac/bd
for all ( a, b), (c, d) S. These operations make F into a eld, known as the eld of fractions of the integral domain R. In fact, the same construction works for any commutative ring R that has no zero divisors and has at least one nonzero element (an integral domain without identity, so to speak). See Question 6 of Tutorial 2. Note that R embeds naturally into its eld of fractions: the subset of F given by { ax/ x | a, x R and x = 0 } is isomorphic to R. (Observe that if x and x are both nonzero then ax/ x = ax / x , and so there is a map R K such that a ax/ x whenever x = 0. It is easily checked that this map is an injective homomorphism.) If R is any nozero subring of a eld K then R satises the above requirements, and so eld of fractions of R can be constructed. Let F be this eld of fractions, and consider now the subset F of K dened by F = { ab1 | a, b R and b = 0 }. It can be shown that F is a subeld of K containing R, and that F is isomorphic to F . Put another way, this says that any embedding of an integral domain into a eld K extends to an embedding of its eld of fractions into K .

or, indeed, integral domain without identity

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