Fermat’s Last Theorem for regular primes

4 Fermats Last Theorem for regular primes

lemma 4.1
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Let \(p \geq 5\) be an prime number, \(\zeta _p\) a \(p\)-th root of unity and \(x, y \in \mathbb {Z}\) coprime.

For \(i \neq j\) we can write

\[ (\zeta _p^i-\zeta _p^j)=u(1-\zeta _p) \]

with \(u\) a unit in \(\mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\). From this it follows that the ideals

\[ (x+y),(x+\zeta _py),(x+\zeta _p^2y),\dots ,(x+\zeta _p^{p-1}y) \]

are pairwise coprime.

Proof

Lemma 3.6 gives that \(u\) is a unit. So all that needs to be proved is that the ideals are coprime. Assume not, then for some \(i \neq j\) we have some prime ideal \(\mathfrak {p}\) dividing by \((x+y\zeta _p^i)\) and \((x+y\zeta _p^j)\). It must then also divide their sum and their difference, so we must have \(\mathfrak {p}| (1-\zeta _p)\) or \(\mathfrak {p}| y\). Similarly, \(\mathfrak {p}\) divides \(\zeta _p^j(x+y\zeta _p^i)-\zeta _p^i(x+y\zeta _p^j)\) so \(\mathfrak {p}\) divides \(x\) or \((1-\zeta _p)\). We can’t have \(\mathfrak {p}\) dividing \(x,y\) since they are coprime, therefore \(\mathfrak {p}|(1-\zeta _p)\). We know that since \((1-\zeta _p)\) has norm \(p\) it must be a prime ideal, so \(\mathfrak {p}=(1-\zeta _p)\). Now, note that \(x+y \equiv x+y\zeta _+p^i \equiv 0 \mod \mathfrak {p}\). But since \(x,y \in \mathbb {Z}\) this means we would have \(x+y \equiv 0 \pmod p\), which implies \(z^p \equiv 0 \pmod p\) which contradicts our assumptions.

lemma 4.2
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Let \(p\) be an prime number, \(\zeta _p\) a \(p\)-th root of unity and \(\alpha \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\). Then \(\alpha ^p\) is congruent to an integer modulo \(p\).

Proof

Just use \((x+y)^p \equiv x^p + y^p \pmod p\) and that \(\zeta _p\) is a \(p\)-th root of unity.

lemma 4.3
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Let \(p \geq 5\) be an prime number, \(\zeta _p\) a \(p\)-th root of unity and \( \alpha \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\). If there is an integer \(n\) such that \(\alpha /n \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\), then \(n\) divides each \(a_i\).

Proof

Looking at \(\alpha =a_0+a_1\zeta _p+\cdots +a_{p-1}\zeta _p^{p-1}\), if one of the \(a_i\)’s is zero and \(\alpha /n \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\), then \(\alpha /n=\sum _i a_i/n \zeta _p^i\). Now, as \(\alpha /n \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\), pick the basis of \(\mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\) which does not contain \(\zeta _p\) (which is possible as any subset of \(\{ 1,\zeta _p,\dots ,\zeta _p^{p-1}\} \) with \(p-1\) elements forms a basis of \(\mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\).]). Then \(\alpha =\sum _i b_i \zeta _p^i\) where \(b_i \in \mathbb {Z}\). Therefore comparing coefficients, we get the result.

lemma 4.4
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Let \(p \geq 5\) be an prime number, \(\zeta _p\) a \(p\)-th root of unity and \( \alpha \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\). Suppose that \(x+y\zeta _p^i=u \alpha ^p\) with \(u \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]^\times \) and \(\alpha \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]\). Then there is an integer \(k\) such that

\[ x+y\zeta _p^i-\zeta _p^{2k}x-\zeta _p^{2k-i}y \equiv 0 \pmod p. \]

Proof

Using lemma 3.5 we have \((x+y\zeta _p^i) =\beta \zeta _p^k \alpha ^p\) which is equivalent to \(\beta \zeta _p^k a \pmod p\) with \(a\) and integer 4.2). Now, if we consider the complex conjugate we have \(\overline{(x+y\zeta _p^i) }\equiv \beta \zeta _p^{-k}a \pmod p\). Looking at \((x+y\zeta _p^i)-\zeta _p^{2k}\overline{(x+y\zeta _p^i) }\) then gives the result.

Let \(p \geq 5\) be an prime number, \(\zeta _p\) a \(p\)-th root of unity and \(K=\mathbb {Q}(\zeta _p)\). Assume that we have \(x,y,z \in \mathbb {Z}\) with \(\gcd (xyz,p)=1\) and such that

\[ x^p+y^p=z^p. \]

Then without loss of generality, we may assume \(x,y,z\) are pairwise coprime and

\[ x \not\equiv y \mod p. \]

Proof

The first part is easy.

Reducing modulo \(p\), using Fermat’s little theorem, you get that if \(x \equiv y \equiv -z \pmod p\) then \(3z \equiv 0 \pmod p\). But since \(p {\gt}3\) this means \(p |z\) but this contradicts \(\gcd (xyz,p)=1\). Now, if \(x \equiv y \pmod p\) then \(x \not\equiv -z \pmod p\) we can relabel \(y,z\) so that wlog \(x \not\equiv y\) (this uses that \(p\) is odd).

Definition 4.6
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A prime number \(p\) is called regular if it does not divide the class number of \(\mathbb {Q}(\zeta _p)\).

Theorem 4.7

Let \(p\) be an odd regular prime. Then

\[ x^p+y^p=z^p \]

has no solutions with \(x,y,z \in \mathbb {Z}\) and \(\gcd (xyz,p)=1\).

Proof

First thing is to note that if \(x^p+y^p=z^p\) then

\[ z^p=(x+y)(x+\zeta _py)\cdots (x+y\zeta _p^{p-1}) \]

as ideals. Then since by 4.1 we know the ideals are coprime, then by lemma 3.7 we have that each \((x+y\zeta _p^i)=\mathfrak {a}^p\), for \(\mathfrak {a}\) some ideal. Note that, \([\mathfrak {a}^p]=1\) in the class group. Now, since \(p\) does not divide the size of the class group we have that \([\mathfrak {a}]=1\) in the class group, so its principal. So we have \(x+y\zeta _p^i=u_i\alpha _i^p\) with \(u_i\) a unit. So by 4.4 we have some \(k\) such that \(x+y\zeta _p-\zeta _p^{2k}x-\zeta _p^{2k-1} \equiv 0 \pmod p\). If \(1,\zeta _p,\zeta _p^{2k},\zeta _p^{2k-1}\) are distinct, then 4.3 (which uses that \(p{\gt}3\)) says that \(p\) divides \(x,y\), contrary to our assumption. So they cannot be distinct, but checking each case leads to a contradiction, therefore there cannot be any such solutions.

Theorem 4.8
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Let \(p\) be a regular prime and let \(u \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]^\times \). If \(u^p \equiv a \mod p\) for some \(a \in \mathbb {Z}\), then there exists \(v \in \mathbb {Z}[\zeta _p]^\times \) such that \(u=v^p\).

Theorem 4.9

Let \(p\) be an odd regular prime. Then

\[ x^p+y^p=z^p \]

has no solutions with \(x,y,z \in \mathbb {Z}\) and \(p | xyz\).

Theorem 4.10
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Let \(p\) be an odd regular prime. Then

\[ x^p+y^p=z^p \]

has no solutions with \(x,y,z \in \mathbb {Z}\) and \(xyz \ne 0\).