TheoremBase

The Rational Numbers Embed in Exactly One Way into Every Ordered Field

In every ordered field there is exactly one map from the rationals preserving sums, products and the unit; it is an injective homomorphism of ordered fields that preserves and reflects the strict order, negatives and reciprocals.

Statement

In the setting of The Integers and the Rational Numbers, with the Natural Numbers and the Integers Identified with Subsets of the Rationals, let rr, with ++, ⋅\cdot, 0r0_{r}, 1r1_{r} and ≤\le, be an ordered field, with negatives, differences, reciprocals and quotients as in Negatives, Differences, Reciprocals and Quotients §negative and Negatives, Differences, Reciprocals and Quotients §reciprocal, absolute values as in Absolute Value in an Ordered Field §absolute-value, and << the strict relation of ≤\le. The operations and orders of Q\mathbb{Q} and rr are written alike, as The Natural Numbers and the Natural Numbers with Zero: Arithmetic, Order, Induction and Recursion §overloading allows; below, those applied to uu and vv are the ones of Q\mathbb{Q}, and those applied to values of φ\varphi are the ones of rr, even if rr and Q\mathbb{Q} have the same elements. Let u,v∈Qu,v\in\mathbb{Q}.

There is exactly one map φ:Q→r\varphi:\mathbb{Q}\to r such that φ(1)=1r\varphi(1)=1_{r} and, for all u,v∈Qu,v\in\mathbb{Q}, φ(u+v)=φ(u)+φ(v)\varphi(u+v)=\varphi(u)+\varphi(v) and φ(u⋅v)=φ(u)⋅φ(v)\varphi(u\cdot v)=\varphi(u)\cdot\varphi(v).

This map φ\varphi is a homomorphism of ordered fields from Q\mathbb{Q} to rr.

φ\varphi is injective.

u<vu<v if and only if φ(u)<φ(v)\varphi(u)<\varphi(v).

φ(0)=0r\varphi(0)=0_{r}.

φ(−u)=−φ(u)\varphi(-u)=-\varphi(u) and φ(u−v)=φ(u)−φ(v)\varphi(u-v)=\varphi(u)-\varphi(v).

If u≠0u\neq0, then φ(u)≠0r\varphi(u)\neq0_{r}, φ(u−1)=φ(u)−1\varphi(u^{-1})=\varphi(u)^{-1} and φ(v/u)=φ(v)/φ(u)\varphi(v/u)=\varphi(v)/\varphi(u).

φ(∣u∣)=∣φ(u)∣\varphi(|u|)=|\varphi(u)|.

Proofs

Log in to submit a proof.

Loading...

Citations

Loading…

Dependencies

Loading…

Related

0 relations

Curated associations between results. These are editable and subjective — they do not replace the dependency graph, which is derived from the references in the text.

No relations recorded yet.

Comments

Log in to comment.

Loading…