Cyclotomic unit

Cyclotomic unit

In mathematics, a cyclotomic unit is a unit of an algebraic number field of the form (ζn − 1)/(ζ − 1) for ζ a root of unity, or more generally a unit that can be written as a product of these and a root of unity.

The cyclotomic units form a subgroup of finite index in the group of units of a cyclotomic field. In the case of prime power conductor this index is the class number of the maximal real subfield of the cyclotomic field.

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