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Cam McLeman
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To add on to Pete's answer, let me comment that the differences are even more pronounced if we look at the maximal pro-$p$ quotient $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{p_1p_2\cdots p_r}\right])^{(p)}$ of this etale fundamental group. For example, if $n\geq 4$$r\geq 4$, then this group is infinite, in fact non-$p$-adic-analytic, if each $p_i\equiv 1\pmod{p}$ and is trivial if each $p_i\not\equiv1\pmod{p}$. This The latter is for basically for stupid reasons (only primes which are 1 mod p can ramify in a $p$-extension). But even ignoring stupid cases, there's a lot of fantastic arithmetic going on here. For example, $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{19\cdot 103}\right])^{(2)}$ is finite whereas $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{17\cdot 103}\right])^{(2)}$ is infinite, results which stem from simple quadratic residue calculations. Figuring out to generate these kinds of results more generally is an active and difficult area of research.

To add on to Pete's answer, let me comment that the differences are even more pronounced if we look at the maximal pro-$p$ quotient $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{p_1p_2\cdots p_r}\right])^{(p)}$ of this etale fundamental group. For example, if $n\geq 4$, then this group is infinite if each $p_i\equiv 1\pmod{p}$ and is trivial if each $p_i\not\equiv1\pmod{p}$. This is for basically stupid reasons (only primes which are 1 mod p can ramify in a $p$-extension). But even ignoring stupid cases, there's a lot of fantastic arithmetic going on here. For example, $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{19\cdot 103}\right])^{(2)}$ is finite whereas $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{17\cdot 103}\right])^{(2)}$ is infinite, results which stem from simple quadratic residue calculations. Figuring out to generate these kinds of results more generally is an active and difficult area of research.

To add on to Pete's answer, let me comment that the differences are even more pronounced if we look at the maximal pro-$p$ quotient $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{p_1p_2\cdots p_r}\right])^{(p)}$ of this etale fundamental group. For example, if $r\geq 4$, then this group is infinite, in fact non-$p$-adic-analytic, if each $p_i\equiv 1\pmod{p}$ and is trivial if each $p_i\not\equiv1\pmod{p}$. The latter is basically for stupid reasons (only primes which are 1 mod p can ramify in a $p$-extension). But even ignoring stupid cases, there's a lot of fantastic arithmetic going on here. For example, $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{19\cdot 103}\right])^{(2)}$ is finite whereas $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{17\cdot 103}\right])^{(2)}$ is infinite, results which stem from simple quadratic residue calculations. Figuring out to generate these kinds of results more generally is an active and difficult area of research.

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Cam McLeman
  • 8.5k
  • 3
  • 51
  • 65

To add on to Pete's answer, let me comment that the differences are even more pronounced if we look at the maximal pro-$p$ quotient $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{p_1p_2\cdots p_r}\right])^{(p)}$ of this etale fundamental group. For example, if $n\geq 4$, then this group is infinite if each $p_i\equiv 1\pmod{p}$ and is trivial if each $p_i\not\equiv1\pmod{p}$. This is for basically stupid reasons (only primes which are 1 mod p can ramify in a $p$-extension). But even ignoring stupid cases, there's a lot of fantastic arithmetic going on here. For example, $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{19\cdot 103}\right])^{(2)}$ is finite whereas $\pi_1(\operatorname{Spec}(\mathbb{Z}\left[\frac{1}{17\cdot 103}\right])^{(2)}$ is infinite, results which stem from simple quadratic residue calculations. Figuring out to generate these kinds of results more generally is an active and difficult area of research.