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visual form, if an ideal number divides � in a cyclotomic ring, then it can divide ��. Subsequently, if it
can divide � and �, then it can divide �+� (Mack – Crane, 2015).
With the above property in mind, an ‘ideal number’ can be described by showing the many collections
of numbers it can divide. Henceforth, we can use this description to explain an ideal prime number; we
let ideal number � to be prime, if there exists �� in the cyclotomic ring, such that if �� is in � (therefore
allowing ideal � in its own ring to be a subset of the cyclotomic ring) then � or � is in �. This allows � to
be a cyclotomic integers, otherwise the ideal number will not exist as a cyclotomic integer without the
property shown above. By multiplying ideal numbers, we can let the product of these numbers be the
smallest kind that contains the cyclotomic integers, thus we can let �� to be the smallest ideals
containing the product of cyclotomic integers, such as �� (Mack – Crane, 2015).
Let us consider a set of ideal numbers in a cyclotomic ring (therefore these numbers are a subset of the
ring), we can say that each element (α) of the ring can produce an ideal of the element, which can be
divided by the said element (α). This element/ divisor is known as a principle (Edwards, 1977, Page 162).
By introducing these principle ideal numbers, the unique factorization is restored, since ‘every ideal in
the ring of integers can be written uniquely as a product of prime ideals’ (Mack – Crane, 2015).
To help aid us with the above idea, consider the example used in the definitions of rings in section 4.1.
We have the equation 6=2×3, now if we consider the ring ℤ(√−5) with the field ℚ(√−5) then we
can write the equation as (Varma, 2008):
6=2∗3=(1+√−5)∗(1−√−5),
whereby 2,3,(1+√−5),(1−√−5) are irreducible elements to ℤ(√−5). However, with the
introduction of ideal numbers, the factors shown above can now be further factorized such that (Mack –
Crane, 2015):
2=(2,1+√−5)(2,1−√−5)=�
1,�
2,
3=(3,1+√−5)(3,1−√−5)=�
3,�
4,
1+√−5=(2,1+√−5)(3,1+√−5)=�
1,�
3,
1−√−5=(2,1−√−5)(3,1−√−5)=�
2,�
4.
We have now further factorized the equation into ideal prime factors �
1,�
2,�
3,�
4 that are unique and
hold in the cyclotomic field ℚ(√−5). As shown above, the unique factorization does not always hold in