In
mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
, the adele ring of a
global field
In mathematics, a global field is one of two types of fields (the other one is local fields) that are characterized using valuations. There are two kinds of global fields:
*Algebraic number field: A finite extension of \mathbb
*Global functio ...
(also adelic ring, ring of adeles or ring of adèles) is a central object of
class field theory
In mathematics, class field theory (CFT) is the fundamental branch of algebraic number theory whose goal is to describe all the abelian Galois extensions of local and global fields using objects associated to the ground field.
Hilbert is credit ...
, a branch of
algebraic number theory
Algebraic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses the techniques of abstract algebra to study the integers, rational numbers, and their generalizations. Number-theoretic questions are expressed in terms of properties of algebraic ob ...
. It is the
restricted product In mathematics, the restricted product is a construction in the theory of topological groups.
Let I be an index set; S a finite subset of I. If G_i is a locally compact group for each i \in I, and K_i \subset G_i is an open compact subgroup for ea ...
of all the
completions of the global field and is an example of a
self-dual topological ring In mathematics, a topological ring is a ring R that is also a topological space such that both the addition and the multiplication are continuous as maps:
R \times R \to R
where R \times R carries the product topology. That means R is an additive ...
.
An adele derives from a particular kind of
idele. "Idele" derives from the French "idèle" and was coined by the French mathematician
Claude Chevalley
Claude Chevalley (; 11 February 1909 – 28 June 1984) was a French mathematician who made important contributions to number theory, algebraic geometry, class field theory, finite group theory and the theory of algebraic groups. He was a found ...
. The word stands for 'ideal element' (abbreviated: id.el.). Adele (French: "adèle") stands for 'additive idele' (that is, additive ideal element).
The ring of adeles allows one to describe the
Artin reciprocity law, which is a generalisation of
quadratic reciprocity
In number theory, the law of quadratic reciprocity is a theorem about modular arithmetic that gives conditions for the solvability of quadratic equations modulo prime numbers. Due to its subtlety, it has many formulations, but the most standard st ...
, and other
reciprocity laws over
finite fields. In addition, it is a classical
theorem
In mathematics and formal logic, a theorem is a statement (logic), statement that has been Mathematical proof, proven, or can be proven. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to esta ...
from
Weil that
-bundles on an
algebraic curve
In mathematics, an affine algebraic plane curve is the zero set of a polynomial in two variables. A projective algebraic plane curve is the zero set in a projective plane of a homogeneous polynomial in three variables. An affine algebraic plane cu ...
over a finite field can be described in terms of adeles for a
reductive group
In mathematics, a reductive group is a type of linear algebraic group over a field. One definition is that a connected linear algebraic group ''G'' over a perfect field is reductive if it has a representation that has a finite kernel and is a ...
. Adeles are also connected with the
adelic algebraic groups and adelic curves.
The study of
geometry of numbers
Geometry of numbers is the part of number theory which uses geometry for the study of algebraic numbers. Typically, a ring of algebraic integers is viewed as a lattice (group), lattice in \mathbb R^n, and the study of these lattices provides fundam ...
over the ring of adeles of a
number field
In mathematics, an algebraic number field (or simply number field) is an extension field K of the field of rational numbers such that the field extension K / \mathbb has finite degree (and hence is an algebraic field extension).
Thus K is a ...
is called adelic geometry.
Definition
Let
be a
global field
In mathematics, a global field is one of two types of fields (the other one is local fields) that are characterized using valuations. There are two kinds of global fields:
*Algebraic number field: A finite extension of \mathbb
*Global functio ...
(a finite extension of
or the function field of a curve
over a finite field). The adele ring of
is the
subring
In mathematics, a subring of a ring is a subset of that is itself a ring when binary operations of addition and multiplication on ''R'' are restricted to the subset, and that shares the same multiplicative identity as .In general, not all s ...
:
consisting of the tuples
where
lies in the subring
for all but finitely many
places . Here the index
ranges over all
valuations of the global field
,
is the
completion at that valuation and
the corresponding
valuation ring
In abstract algebra, a valuation ring is an integral domain ''D'' such that for every non-zero element ''x'' of its field of fractions ''F'', at least one of ''x'' or ''x''−1 belongs to ''D''.
Given a field ''F'', if ''D'' is a subring of ' ...
.
Motivation
The ring of adeles solves the technical problem of "doing analysis on the rational numbers
." The classical solution was to pass to the standard metric completion
and use analytic techniques there. But, as was learned later on, there are many more
absolute values
In mathematics, the absolute value or modulus of a real number x, is the non-negative value without regard to its sign. Namely, , x, =x if x is a positive number, and , x, =-x if x is negative (in which case negating x makes -x positive), an ...
other than the
Euclidean distance
In mathematics, the Euclidean distance between two points in Euclidean space is the length of the line segment between them. It can be calculated from the Cartesian coordinates of the points using the Pythagorean theorem, and therefore is o ...
, one for each prime number
, as classified by
Ostrowski's theorem. The Euclidean absolute value, denoted
, is only one among many others,
, but the ring of adeles makes it possible to comprehend and . This has the advantage of enabling analytic techniques while also retaining information about the primes, since their structure is embedded by the restricted infinite product.
The purpose of the adele ring is to look at all completions of
at once. The adele ring is defined with the restricted product, rather than the
Cartesian product
In mathematics, specifically set theory, the Cartesian product of two sets and , denoted , is the set of all ordered pairs where is an element of and is an element of . In terms of set-builder notation, that is
A\times B = \.
A table c ...
. There are two reasons for this:
* For each element of
the valuations are zero for almost all places, i.e., for all places except a finite number. So, the global field can be embedded in the restricted product.
* The restricted product is a
locally compact space
In topology and related branches of mathematics, a topological space is called locally compact if, roughly speaking, each small portion of the space looks like a small portion of a compact space. More precisely, it is a topological space in which ...
, while the Cartesian product is not. Therefore, there cannot be any application of
harmonic analysis
Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with investigating the connections between a function and its representation in frequency. The frequency representation is found by using the Fourier transform for functions on unbounded do ...
to the Cartesian product. This is because local compactness ensures the existence (and uniqueness) of
Haar measure
In mathematical analysis, the Haar measure assigns an "invariant volume" to subsets of locally compact topological groups, consequently defining an integral for functions on those groups.
This Measure (mathematics), measure was introduced by Alfr� ...
, a crucial tool in analysis on groups in general.
Why the restricted product?
The
restricted infinite product is a required technical condition for giving the number field
a lattice structure inside of
, making it possible to build a theory of Fourier analysis (cf.
Harmonic analysis
Harmonic analysis is a branch of mathematics concerned with investigating the connections between a function and its representation in frequency. The frequency representation is found by using the Fourier transform for functions on unbounded do ...
) in the adelic setting. This is analogous to the situation in algebraic number theory where the ring of integers of an algebraic number field embeds
as a lattice. With the power of a new theory of Fourier analysis,
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
was able to prove a special class of
L-function
In mathematics, an ''L''-function is a meromorphic function on the complex plane, associated to one out of several categories of mathematical objects. An ''L''-series is a Dirichlet series, usually convergent on a half-plane, that may gi ...
s and the
Dedekind zeta function
In mathematics, the Dedekind zeta function of an algebraic number field ''K'', generally denoted ζ''K''(''s''), is a generalization of the Riemann zeta function (which is obtained in the case where ''K'' is the field of rational numbers Q). It ca ...
s were
meromorphic on the complex plane. Another natural reason for why this technical condition holds can be seen by constructing the ring of adeles as a tensor product of rings. If defining the ring of integral adeles
as the ring
then the ring of adeles can be equivalently defined as
The restricted product structure becomes transparent after looking at explicit elements in this ring. The image of an element
inside of the unrestricted product
is the element
The factor
lies in
whenever
is not a prime factor of
, which is the case for all but finitely many primes
.
Origin of the name
The term "idele" () is an invention of the French mathematician
Claude Chevalley
Claude Chevalley (; 11 February 1909 – 28 June 1984) was a French mathematician who made important contributions to number theory, algebraic geometry, class field theory, finite group theory and the theory of algebraic groups. He was a found ...
(1909–1984) and stands for "ideal element" (abbreviated: id.el.). The term "adele" (French: ) stands for additive idele. Thus, an adele is an additive ideal element.
Examples
Ring of adeles for the rational numbers
The rationals
have a valuation for every prime number
, with
, and one infinite valuation ''∞'' with
. Thus an element of
:
is a real number along with a
''p''-adic rational for each ''
'' of which all but finitely many are ''p''-adic integers.
Ring of adeles for the function field of the projective line
Secondly, take the function field
of the
projective line
In projective geometry and mathematics more generally, a projective line is, roughly speaking, the extension of a usual line by a point called a '' point at infinity''. The statement and the proof of many theorems of geometry are simplified by the ...
over a finite field. Its valuations correspond to points
of
, i.e. maps over
:
For instance, there are
points of the form
. In this case
is the
completed stalk of the
structure sheaf
In mathematics, a ringed space is a family of (commutative) rings parametrized by open subsets of a topological space together with ring homomorphisms that play roles of restrictions. Precisely, it is a topological space equipped with a sheaf of ...
at
(i.e. functions on a formal neighbourhood of
) and
is its fraction field. Thus
:
The same holds for any smooth proper curve
over a finite field, the restricted product being over all points of
.
Related notions
The group of units in the adele ring is called the idele group
:
.
The quotient of the ideles by the subgroup
is called the idele class group
:
The integral adeles are the subring
:
Applications
Stating Artin reciprocity
The
Artin reciprocity law says that for a global field
,
:
where
is the maximal
abelian algebraic extension of
and
means the
profinite completion of the group.
Giving adelic formulation of Picard group of a curve
If ''
'' is a smooth proper curve then its
Picard group
In mathematics, the Picard group of a ringed space ''X'', denoted by Pic(''X''), is the group of isomorphism classes of invertible sheaves (or line bundles) on ''X'', with the group operation being tensor product. This construction is a global ver ...
is
:
and its divisor group is
. Similarly, if
is a
semisimple
In mathematics, semi-simplicity is a widespread concept in disciplines such as linear algebra, abstract algebra, representation theory, category theory, and algebraic geometry. A semi-simple object is one that can be decomposed into a sum of ''sim ...
algebraic group (e.g.
, it also holds for
) then Weil uniformisation says that
:
Applying this to
gives the result on the Picard group.
Tate's thesis
There is a topology on
for which the quotient
is compact, allowing one to do harmonic analysis on it.
John Tate in his thesis "Fourier analysis in number fields and Hecke Zeta functions" proved results about
Dirichlet L-functions using Fourier analysis on the adele ring and the idele group. Therefore, the adele ring and the idele group have been applied to study the Riemann zeta function and more general zeta functions and the L-functions.
Proving Serre duality on a smooth curve
If
is a smooth proper curve ''over the complex numbers'', one can define the adeles of its function field
exactly as the finite fields case.
John Tate proved that
Serre duality
In algebraic geometry, a branch of mathematics, Serre duality is a duality for the coherent sheaf cohomology of algebraic varieties, proved by Jean-Pierre Serre. The basic version applies to vector bundles on a smooth projective variety, but Ale ...
on ''
''
:
can be deduced by working with this adele ring
. Here ''L'' is a
line bundle
In mathematics, a line bundle expresses the concept of a line that varies from point to point of a space. For example, a curve in the plane having a tangent line at each point determines a varying line: the ''tangent bundle'' is a way of organis ...
on ''
''.
Notation and basic definitions
Global fields
Throughout this article,
is a
global field
In mathematics, a global field is one of two types of fields (the other one is local fields) that are characterized using valuations. There are two kinds of global fields:
*Algebraic number field: A finite extension of \mathbb
*Global functio ...
, meaning it is either a
number field
In mathematics, an algebraic number field (or simply number field) is an extension field K of the field of rational numbers such that the field extension K / \mathbb has finite degree (and hence is an algebraic field extension).
Thus K is a ...
(a finite extension of
) or a
global function field (a finite extension of
for
prime and
). By definition a finite extension of a global field is itself a global field.
Valuations
For a
valuation of
it can be written
for the completion of
with respect to
If
is discrete it can be written
for the valuation ring of
and
for the maximal ideal of
If this is a principal ideal denoting the uniformising element by
A non-Archimedean valuation is written as
or
and an Archimedean valuation as
Then assume all valuations to be non-trivial.
There is a one-to-one identification of valuations and absolute values. Fix a constant
the valuation
is assigned the absolute value
defined as:
:
Conversely, the absolute value
is assigned the valuation
defined as:
:
A
place
Place may refer to:
Geography
* Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population
** Census-designated place, a populated area lacking its own municipal government
* "Place", a type of street or road name
** Of ...
of
is a representative of an equivalence class of
valuations (or absolute values) of
Places corresponding to non-Archimedean valuations are called ''finite'', whereas places corresponding to Archimedean valuations are called ''infinite''. Infinite places of a global field form a finite set, which is denoted by
Define
and let
be its group of units. Then
Finite extensions
Let
be a finite extension of the global field
Let
be a place of
and
a place of
If the absolute value
restricted to
is in the equivalence class of
, then
lies above
which is denoted by
and defined as:
:
(Note that both products are finite.)
If
,
can be embedded in
Therefore,
is embedded diagonally in
With this embedding
is a commutative algebra over
with degree
:
The adele ring
The set of finite adeles of a global field
denoted
is defined as the restricted product of
with respect to the
:
It is equipped with the restricted product topology, the topology generated by restricted open rectangles, which have the following form:
:
where
is a finite set of (finite) places and
are open. With component-wise addition and multiplication
is also a ring.
The adele ring of a global field
is defined as the product of
with the product of the completions of
at its infinite places. The number of infinite places is finite and the completions are either
or
In short:
:
With addition and multiplication defined as component-wise the adele ring is a ring. The elements of the adele ring are called adeles of
In the following, it is written as
:
although this is generally not a restricted product.
Remark. Global function fields do not have any infinite places and therefore the finite adele ring equals the adele ring.
:Lemma. There is a natural embedding of
into
given by the diagonal map:
Proof. If
then
for almost all
This shows the map is well-defined. It is also injective because the embedding of
in
is injective for all
Remark. By identifying
with its image under the diagonal map it is regarded as a subring of
The elements of
are called the principal adeles of
Definition. Let
be a set of places of
Define the set of the
-adeles of
as
:
Furthermore, if
:
the result is:
The adele ring of rationals
By
Ostrowski's theorem the places of
are
it is possible to identify a prime
with the equivalence class of the
-adic absolute value and
with the equivalence class of the absolute value
defined as:
:
The completion of
with respect to the place
is
with valuation ring
For the place
the completion is
Thus:
:
Or for short
:
the difference between restricted and unrestricted product topology can be illustrated using a sequence in
:
:Lemma. Consider the following sequence in
:
::
:In the product topology this converges to
, but it does not converge at all in the restricted product topology.
Proof. In product topology convergence corresponds to the convergence in each coordinate, which is trivial because the sequences become stationary. The sequence doesn't converge in restricted product topology. For each adele
and for each restricted open rectangle
it has:
for
and therefore
for all
As a result
for almost all
In this consideration,
and
are finite subsets of the set of all places.
Alternative definition for number fields
Definition (
profinite integers). The
profinite integers are defined as the
profinite completion of the rings
with the partial order
i.e.,
:
:Lemma.
Proof. This follows from the
Chinese Remainder Theorem
In mathematics, the Chinese remainder theorem states that if one knows the remainders of the Euclidean division of an integer ''n'' by several integers, then one can determine uniquely the remainder of the division of ''n'' by the product of thes ...
.
:Lemma.
Proof. Use the universal property of the tensor product. Define a
-bilinear function
:
This is well-defined because for a given
with
co-prime there are only finitely many primes dividing
Let
be another
-module with a
-bilinear map
It must be the case that
factors through
uniquely, i.e., there exists a unique
-linear map
such that
can be defined as follows: for a given
there exist
and
such that
for all
Define
One can show
is well-defined,
-linear, satisfies
and is unique with these properties.
:Corollary. Define
This results in an algebraic isomorphism
Proof.
:Lemma. For a number field
Remark. Using
where there are