Maths Olympiad Prep

Track / Stage 8 / 16 of 180 #1716 of 1964

Problem 1716

IMO Shortlist mid-range; USAMO P2/P5
Algebra Difficulty 8.0 Find the answer International Mathematics Competition

Does there exist a field such that its multiplicative group is isomorphic to its additive group?

A number or a short expression. Fractions can be typed as 3/2, and spacing doesn't matter.

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Official solution

There exist no such field. Suppose that FF is such a field and g:FF+g: F^{*} \rightarrow F^{+} is a group isomorphism. Then g(1)=0g(1)=0. Let a=g(1)a=g(-1). Then 2a=2g(1)=g((1)2)=g(1)=02 a=2 \cdot g(-1)=g\left((-1)^{2}\right)=g(1)=0; so either a=0a=0 or char F=2F=2. If a=0a=0 then 1=g1(a)=g1(0)=1-1=g^{-1}(a)=g^{-1}(0)=1; we have char F=2F=2 in any case. For every xFx \in F, we have g(x2)=2g(x)=0=g(1)g\left(x^{2}\right)=2 g(x)=0=g(1), so x2=1x^{2}=1. But this equation has only one or two solutions. Hence FF is the 2-element field; but its additive and multiplicative groups have different numbers of elements and are not isomorphic.

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