Answer by B Rosenfield for Which p-adic numbers are also algebraic?

2010-03-09T21:36:03Z

There's a slightly subtle point near here of which some people are not aware: that it is dangerous (perhaps even nonsensical) to compare algebraic numbers under various different completions. So, to talk about $Q_p\cap \bar Q$, you should be talking about a completion of $Q$ containing $Q_p$, not, e.g., a completion of $Q$ lying inside $C$. I don't think this is what is happening here, but some people may find this interesting.

Now, there are lots of isomorphisms floating around, so usually everything turns out just fine, but sometimes not. Here are two examples.

(1) The following fallacious argument that $e$ is transcendental is from a talk by Gouvêa, "Hensel's p-adic Numbers: early history" (originally due to Hensel himself).

The series expansion of $e^p$ converges in $Q_p$, thus $e$ is a solution to the equation $X^p=1+p\epsilon$, where $\epsilon$ is a $p$-adic unit. So $[Q_p(e):Q_p]=p$ (of course you need to argue that the polynomial is irreducible), and so $[Q(e):Q]\ge p$. Since $p$ was arbitrary, $e$ must be transcendental over $Q$.

The fallacy is that even though the series for $e$ (and $e^p$) converges in $R$ and $Q_p$, the numbers they converge to are not the same.

(2) The following is from Koblitz's $p$-adic book, page 83 (with an example and some other fallacious arguments).

It is not true that if an infinite sum of rational numbers (a) converges $p$-adically to a rational number for some $p$ and (b) converges in the real topology to a rational number, then the rational numbers the two series converge to are the same!

User b rosenfield - MathOverflow

Answer by B Rosenfield for Which p-adic numbers are also algebraic?