Gaussian Period - General Definition

General Definition

Given an integer n > 1, let H be any subgroup of the multiplicative group

of invertible residues modulo n, and let

A Gaussian period P is a sum of the primitive n-th roots of unity, where runs through all of the elements in a fixed coset of H in G.

The definition of P can also be stated in terms of the field trace. We have

for some subfield L of Q(ζ) and some j coprime to n. This corresponds to the previous definition by identifying G and H with the Galois groups of Q(ζ)/Q and Q(ζ)/L, respectively. The choice of j determines the choice of coset of H in G in the previous definition.

Read more about this topic:  Gaussian Period

Famous quotes containing the words general and/or definition:

    The general review of the past tends to satisfy me with my political life. No man, I suppose, ever came up to his ideal. The first half [of] my political life was first to resist the increase of slavery and secondly to destroy it.... The second half of my political life has been to rebuild, and to get rid of the despotic and corrupting tendencies and the animosities of the war, and other legacies of slavery.
    Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

    It is very hard to give a just definition of love. The most we can say of it is this: that in the soul, it is a desire to rule; in the spirit, it is a sympathy; and in the body, it is but a hidden and subtle desire to possess—after many mysteries—what one loves.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)