[Math] P-adic numbers complete/incomplete

general-topologyp-adic-number-theory

P-adic numbers are complete in one sense and incomplete in another sense. Is it so?

Firstly, does not complete mean connected? I read somewhere that there is not intermediate value theorem for p-adics because they are not connected. (if I am correct).

It seems I need elaboration of this "It can be shown that the rationals, together with the $p$-adic metric, do not form a complete metric space. The completion of this space can therefore be constructed, and the set of $p$-adic numbers $\mathbb{Q}_p$is defined to be this completed space."Math World.

How is the completion constructed with same metric and same numbers?

Best Answer

To see that $\mathbb Q$ is incomplete under the $p$-adic valuation, it suffices to find an element of $\mathbb Q_p$ not in the rationals. For $p=2$, $\sqrt{-7}$ will do, for $p=3$, $\sqrt7$ will do, and for $p>3$, the field $\mathbb Q_p$ contains all $p-1$ roots of unity of order $p-1$. The existence of these irrationalities in the $p$-adics drops out of Hensel’s Lemma, the basic fact of $p$-adic life.