[Math] Representations of p-adic integers as certain infinite sums

abstract-algebrap-adic-number-theoryring-theory

One way to define the p-adic integers is as the $p$-adic completion of $\mathbb{Z}$. With some additional work, it can be shown that this is isomorphic to $\mathbb{Z}[[x]]/(x-p)$.

Now, I know that another approach is to define $\mathbb{Z}_p$ as the ring of power series with powers of $p$ and coefficients from ${0, 1,…, p-1}$.

My question is: How can we see that the first definition of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ coincides with the second definition? and how can we find an explicit isomorphism from $\mathbb{Z}[[x]]/(x-p)$ to the ring of power series described above?

Best Answer

You want a map from ${\bf Z}[[x]]$ to that ring of coefficient-restricted power series, with kernel generated by $p-x$. Here's a start on constructing such.

Any positive integer can be written in base $p$ as $a=a_0+a_1p+\cdots+a_rp^r$ with $0\le a_i\le p-1$ for each $i$. This gives you a map $\phi$ from positive integers to (coefficient-restricted) polynomials by $\phi(a)=a_0+a_1x+\cdots+a_rx^r$. Now all you have to do is extend the domain from the positive integers to ${\bf Z}[[x]]$.

Start with the negative integers. In fact, start with $-1$; $$-1=(p-1)+(p-1)p+(p-1)p^2+\cdots$$ so $$\phi(-1)=(p-1)+(p-1)x+(p-1)x^2+\cdots$$ Now you can get $\phi(n)$ for any negative integer $n$ as a coefficient-restricted power series - details left to the reader.

The more complicated problem is what to do after you've applied $\phi$ to each coefficient of an element of ${\bf Z}[[x]]$ and because of the interaction between coefficients you still have some (perhaps infinitely many) coefficients outside the desired range. Well, apply $\phi$ again, and again, and again. After $k$ applications, at least the first $k$ coefficients will be OK, and they will stay OK forever after, so in the limit, you have your isomorphism.

There's probably a way of stating this in finite terms, but I'm not seeing it right now.

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