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The Stacks project

Lemma 10.32.8. Let R be a ring. Let I \subset R be a locally nilpotent ideal. Let n \geq 1 be an integer which is invertible in R/I. Then

  1. the nth power map 1 + I \to 1 + I, 1 + x \mapsto (1 + x)^ n is a bijection,

  2. a unit of R is a nth power if and only if its image in R/I is an nth power.

Proof. Let a \in R be a unit whose image in R/I is the same as the image of b^ n with b \in R. Then b is a unit (Lemma 10.32.4) and ab^{-n} = 1 + x for some x \in I. Hence ab^{-n} = c^ n by part (1). Thus (2) follows from (1).

Proof of (1). This is true because there is an inverse to the map 1 + x \mapsto (1 + x)^ n. Namely, we can consider the map which sends 1 + x to

\begin{align*} (1 + x)^{1/n} & = 1 + {1/n \choose 1}x + {1/n \choose 2}x^2 + {1/n \choose 3}x^3 + \ldots \\ & = 1 + \frac{1}{n} x + \frac{1 - n}{2n^2}x^2 + \frac{(1 - n)(1 - 2n)}{6n^3}x^3 + \ldots \end{align*}

as in elementary calculus. This makes sense because the series is finite as x^ k = 0 for all k \gg 0 and each coefficient {1/n \choose k} \in \mathbf{Z}[1/n] (details omitted; observe that n is invertible in R by Lemma 10.32.4). \square


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