2 Corrected the direction of the Minkowski bound.

Hermite's theorem, as it is typically called, is that there are only finitely many number fields of bounded (equivalently, fixed) discriminant.

The usual proof (see Neukirch's Algebraic Number Theory for example) proceeds as follows. First, one proves the Minkowski bound: $|Disc(K)| < > (C + o(1))^{deg \ K}$ where $C > 1$. This reduces the problem to fields of fixed degree. For fields $K$ of degree $n$ with $Disc(K) < X$, one can then obtain bounds on the coefficients of the minimal polynomial of $K$, and in particular there are only finitely many possibilities.

However, Minkowski's work was more than thirty years after Hermite's. I looked at Hermite's original paper and although I confess to not having read it in detail, it seems to be essentially the proof I described above. In particular he only claims on the first page to prove the theorem for fields of a fixed degree, and there is nothing I found in the paper which looks like it applies to all degrees.

So did Hermite actually prove the result that bears his name, or has he been given credit for the jazzed-up version, which apparently could only have been proved thirty years later?

And regardless of whether he actually did, might he have reasonably done so other than coming up with Minkowski's bound on his own?

Thank you!

1

Did Hermite really prove "Hermite's Theorem" on number field discriminants?

Hermite's theorem, as it is typically called, is that there are only finitely many number fields of bounded (equivalently, fixed) discriminant.

The usual proof (see Neukirch's Algebraic Number Theory for example) proceeds as follows. First, one proves the Minkowski bound: $|Disc(K)| < (C + o(1))^{deg \ K}$ where $C > 1$. This reduces the problem to fields of fixed degree. For fields $K$ of degree $n$ with $Disc(K) < X$, one can then obtain bounds on the coefficients of the minimal polynomial of $K$, and in particular there are only finitely many possibilities.

However, Minkowski's work was more than thirty years after Hermite's. I looked at Hermite's original paper and although I confess to not having read it in detail, it seems to be essentially the proof I described above. In particular he only claims on the first page to prove the theorem for fields of a fixed degree, and there is nothing I found in the paper which looks like it applies to all degrees.

So did Hermite actually prove the result that bears his name, or has he been given credit for the jazzed-up version, which apparently could only have been proved thirty years later?

And regardless of whether he actually did, might he have reasonably done so other than coming up with Minkowski's bound on his own?

Thank you!