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David E Speyer
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I assume you want $q$ and $r$ to be odd primes. Also, note that I will be using the notation that $\zeta_m$ means an arbitrary primitive $m$-th root of unity (but the same one every time it appears in an equation), and will be proving the statement in that generality.

Lemma: For any odd $m>1$ and any $\zeta_m$, the number $\zeta_m+1$ is a unit.

Proof: Let $r$ be such that $m | 2^r-1$. We'll abbreviate $\zeta_m$ to $\zeta$.

Then $\zeta^{2^r} = \zeta$ so $$1 = \left( \frac{\zeta^{2}-1}{\zeta -1} \right) \left( \frac{\zeta^{4}-1}{\zeta^{2} -1} \right) \cdots \left( \frac{\zeta^{2^r}-1}{\zeta^{2^{r-1}} -1} \right)=$$ $$\left( \zeta+1 \right) \left( \zeta^{2} + 1 \right) \cdots \left( \zeta^{2^{r-1}} +1 \right),$$ exhibiting an explicit inverse for $\zeta+1$.

Let $\eta$ be a primitive $2qr$ root of unity. Then your proposed unit is $\eta^{r}+\eta^{-r} + \eta^q + \eta^{-q}$ and factors as $$\eta^r (1+\eta^{q-r})(1+\eta^{-q-r}).$$ Since $q$ and $r$ are odd and relatively prime, $\eta^{q-r}$ and $\eta^{q+r}$ are primitive $qr$-th roots of unity and we are done by the lemma.

David E Speyer
  • 156.2k
  • 14
  • 419
  • 763