Minkowski's bound

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Minkowski's bound describes an upper limit for computing the class number of a field K over \mathbb{Q}. It is named for the mathematician Hermann Minkowski. Let D be the discriminant of the field, n be the degree of K over \mathbb{Q}, and 2r2 = nr1 be the number of complex embeddings where r1 is the number of real embeddings. Then every class in the ideal class group of K contains an integral ideal of norm not exceeding Minkowski's bound

M_K = \sqrt{|D|} \left(\frac{4}{\pi}\right)^{r_2} \frac{n!}{n^n}.

In particular, the class group is generated by the prime ideals of norm at most MK.


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