In
mathematicsMathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, the
characteristic of a
ringIn mathematics, a ring is an algebraic structure consisting of a set together with two binary operations usually called addition and multiplication, where the set is an abelian group under addition and a semigroup under multiplication such that multiplication distributes over addition...
R, often denoted char(
R), is defined to be the smallest number of times one must use the ring's multiplicative
identity elementIn mathematics, an identity element is a special type of element of a set with respect to a binary operation on that set. It leaves other elements unchanged when combined with them...
(1) in a sum to get the
additive identityIn mathematics the additive identity of a set which is equipped with the operation of addition is an element which, when added to any element x in the set, yields x...
element (0); the ring is said to have characteristic zero if this repeated sum never reaches the additive identity.
That is, char(
R) is the smallest positive number
n such that
if such a number
n exists, and 0 otherwise.
The characteristic may also be taken to be the exponent of the ring's additive group, that is, the smallest positive
n such that
for every element
a of the ring (again, if
n exists; otherwise zero). Some authors do not include the multiplicative identity element in their requirements for a ring (
see ring), and this definition is suitable for that convention; otherwise the two definitions are easily seen to be equivalent due to the distributive law in rings.
Other equivalent definitions include taking the characteristic to be the
natural numberIn mathematics, the natural numbers are the ordinary whole numbers used for counting and ordering . These purposes are related to the linguistic notions of cardinal and ordinal numbers, respectively...
n such that
nZ is the kernel of a ring homomorphismIn ring theory or abstract algebra, a ring homomorphism is a function between two rings which respects the operations of addition and multiplication....
from Z to R, or such that R contains a subringIn mathematics, a subring of R is a subset of a ring, is itself a ring with the restrictions of the binary operations of addition and multiplication of R, and which contains the multiplicative identity of R...
isomorphicIn ring theory or abstract algebra, a ring homomorphism is a function between two rings which respects the operations of addition and multiplication....
to the factor ring Z/nZ, which would be the
imageIn mathematics, an image is the subset of a function's codomain which is the output of the function on a subset of its domain. Precisely, evaluating the function at each element of a subset X of the domain produces a set called the image of X under or through the function...
of that homomorphism. The requirements of ring homomorphisms are such that there can be only one homomorphism from the ring of integers to any ring; in the language of
category theoryCategory theory is an area of study in mathematics that examines in an abstract way the properties of particular mathematical concepts, by formalising them as collections of objects and arrows , where these collections satisfy certain basic conditions...
,
Z is an
initial objectIn category theory, an abstract branch of mathematics, an initial object of a category C is an object I in C such that for every object X in C, there exists precisely one morphism I → X...
of the
category of ringsIn mathematics, the category of rings, denoted by Ring, is the category whose objects are rings and whose morphisms are ring homomorphisms...
. Again this follows the convention that a ring has a multiplicative identity element (which is preserved by ring homomorphisms).
Case of rings
If
R and
S are rings and there exists a
ring homomorphismIn ring theory or abstract algebra, a ring homomorphism is a function between two rings which respects the operations of addition and multiplication....
R →
S, then the characteristic of
S divides the characteristic of
R. This can sometimes be used to exclude the possibility of certain ring homomorphisms. The only ring with characteristic 1 is the
trivial ring which has only a single element 0=1. If the non-trivial ring
R does not have any
zero divisorIn abstract algebra, a nonzero element a of a ring is a left zero divisor if there exists a nonzero b such that ab = 0. Similarly, a nonzero element a of a ring is a right zero divisor if there exists a nonzero c such that ca = 0. An element that is both a left and a right zero divisor is simply...
s, then its characteristic is either 0 or
primeA prime number is a natural number greater than 1 that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. A natural number greater than 1 that is not a prime number is called a composite number. For example 5 is prime, as only 1 and 5 divide it, whereas 6 is composite, since it has the divisors 2...
. In particular, this applies to all
fieldsIn abstract algebra, a field is a commutative ring whose nonzero elements form a group under multiplication. As such it is an algebraic structure with notions of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, satisfying certain axioms...
, to all
integral domains, and to all
division ringIn abstract algebra, a division ring, also called a skew field, is a ring in which division is possible. Specifically, it is a non-trivial ring in which every non-zero element a has a multiplicative inverse, i.e., an element x with...
s. Any ring of characteristic 0 is infinite.
The ring
Z/
nZ of integers moduloIn mathematics, modular arithmetic is a system of arithmetic for integers, where numbers "wrap around" after they reach a certain value—the modulus....
n has characteristic n. If R is a subringIn mathematics, a subring of R is a subset of a ring, is itself a ring with the restrictions of the binary operations of addition and multiplication of R, and which contains the multiplicative identity of R...
of S, then R and S have the same characteristic. For instance, if q(X) is a prime polynomialIn mathematics, a polynomial is an expression of finite length constructed from variables and constants, using only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and non-negative integer exponents...
with coefficients in the field Z/pZ where
p is prime, then the factor ring (
Z/
pZ)[X
]/(q
(X
)) is a field of characteristic p
. Since the complex numberA complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...
s contain the rationals, their characteristic is 0.
If a commutative ring R
has prime characteristic p
, then we have (x
+ y
)p
= x
p
+ y
p
for all elements x
and y
in R
– the "freshman's dreamThe freshman's dream is a name sometimes given to the error n = xn + yn, where n is a real number . Beginning students commonly make this error in computing the exponential of a sum of real numbers...
" holds for power p
.
The map
f
(x
) = x
p
then defines a ring homomorphismIn ring theory or abstract algebra, a ring homomorphism is a function between two rings which respects the operations of addition and multiplication....
R
→ R
.
It is called the Frobenius homomorphism
. If R
is an integral domain it is injective.
Case of fields
As mentioned above, the characteristic of any field is either 0 or a prime number.
For any field F
, there is a minimal subfield, namely the , the smallest subfield containing 1F
. It is isomorphic either to the rational numberIn mathematics, a rational number is any number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction a/b of two integers, with the denominator b not equal to zero. Since b may be equal to 1, every integer is a rational number...
field Q
, or a finite field of prime order, Fp
; the structure of the prime field and the characteristic each determine the other. Fields of characteristic zero have the most familiar properties; for practical purposes they resemble subfields of the
complex numberA complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...
s (unless they have very large
cardinality, that is; in fact, any field of characteristic zero and cardinality at most
continuumIn set theory, the cardinality of the continuum is the cardinality or “size” of the set of real numbers \mathbb R, sometimes called the continuum. It is an infinite cardinal number and is denoted by |\mathbb R| or \mathfrak c ....
is isomorphic to a subfield of complex numbers). The p-adic fields are characteristic zero fields, much applied in number theory, that are constructed from rings of characteristic p
k
, as k
→ ∞.
For any ordered fieldIn mathematics, an ordered field is a field together with a total ordering of its elements that is compatible with the field operations. Historically, the axiomatization of an ordered field was abstracted gradually from the real numbers, by mathematicians including David Hilbert, Otto Hölder and...
(for example, the rationalsIn mathematics, a rational number is any number that can be expressed as the quotient or fraction a/b of two integers, with the denominator b not equal to zero. Since b may be equal to 1, every integer is a rational number...
or the realsIn mathematics, a real number is a value that represents a quantity along a continuum, such as -5 , 4/3 , 8.6 , √2 and π...
) the characteristic is 0. The finite fieldIn abstract algebra, a finite field or Galois field is a field that contains a finite number of elements. Finite fields are important in number theory, algebraic geometry, Galois theory, cryptography, and coding theory...
GF(p
n
) has characteristic p
. There exist infinite fields of prime characteristic. For example, the field of all rational functionIn mathematics, a rational function is any function which can be written as the ratio of two polynomial functions. Neither the coefficients of the polynomials nor the values taken by the function are necessarily rational.-Definitions:...
s over Z/pZ is one such. The
algebraic closureIn mathematics, particularly abstract algebra, an algebraic closure of a field K is an algebraic extension of K that is algebraically closed. It is one of many closures in mathematics....
of
Z/
pZ is another example.
The size of any finite ringIn mathematics, more specifically abstract algebra, a finite ring is a ring that has a finite number of elements....
of prime characteristic p is a power of p. Since in that case it must contain Z/pZ it must also be a
vector spaceA vector space is a mathematical structure formed by a collection of vectors: objects that may be added together and multiplied by numbers, called scalars in this context. Scalars are often taken to be real numbers, but one may also consider vector spaces with scalar multiplication by complex...
over that field and from
linear algebraLinear algebra is a branch of mathematics that studies vector spaces, also called linear spaces, along with linear functions that input one vector and output another. Such functions are called linear maps and can be represented by matrices if a basis is given. Thus matrix theory is often...
we know that the sizes of finite vector spaces over finite fields are a power of the size of the field. This also shows that the size of any finite vector space is a prime power. (It is a vector space over a finite field, which we have shown to be of size
pn. So its size is (
pn)
m =
pnm.)