Ideals of \({\mathbb{Z}}\)#

The theory of ideals of \({\mathbb{Z}}\) is very elementary but for completeness the general machinery for ring ideals applies. Such ideals will have type RngInt, that is, the same type as the ring of integers itself (ideal<Integers() | 1>).

In the case of \({\mathbb{Z}}\) any subring is an ideal so that the sub-constructor creates the same object as does the ideal-constructor. One quirk of this fact that ideals are of type RngInt is that taking \(R/I\) will result in the ideal division rather than the ring-by-ideal quotient (this is for compatibility with orders of number fields, as explained in the next section). Here is an example that shows the difference.

> Z := Integers();
> I := ideal<Z|1>; // ideal of Z
> Z/I; // interpreted as ideal division
Integer Ring
> quo<Z|I>; // quotient of ring by ideal
Residue class ring of integers modulo 1
ideal< R | a >: RngInt, RngIntElt -> RngIntRes#

Given the ring of integers \({\mathbb{Z}}\) and an integer \(a\), return the ideal of \({\mathbb{Z}}\) generated by \(a\).

Example: Residue Ring (ex-1aa6f6)#

We construct some ideals of \({\mathbb{Z}}\).

> Z := IntegerRing();
> I13 := ideal< Z | 13 >;
> I13;
Ideal of Integer Ring generated by 13
> 1 in I13;
false
> 0 in I13;
true
> -13 in I13;
true
> I0 := ideal< Z | 0 >;
> 0 in I0;
true
> 1 in I0;
false

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We check that \({\mathbb{Z}}\) is regarded as an ideal.

> I1 := ideal< Z | 1 >;
> I1 eq Z;
true

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