Uniformizing parameter[edit]

Given a DVR R, any irreducible element of R is a generator for the unique maximal ideal of R and vice versa. Such an element is also called a uniformizing parameter of R (or a uniformizing element, a uniformizer, or a prime element).


If we fix a uniformizing parameter t, then M=(t) is the unique maximal ideal of R, and every other non-zero ideal is a power of M, i.e. has the form (t ^k) for some k≥0. All the powers of t are distinct, and so are the powers of M. Every non-zero element x of R can be written in the form αt ^k with α a unit in R and k≥0, both uniquely determined by x. The valuation is given by ν(x) = kv(t). So to understand the ring completely, one needs to know the group of units of R and how the units interact additively with the powers of t.


The function v also makes any discrete valuation ring into a Euclidean domain.

Every discrete valuation ring, being a local ring, carries a natural topology and is a topological ring. We can also give it a metric space structure where the distance between two elements x and y can be measured as follows:


(or with any other fixed real number > 1 in place of 2). Intuitively: an element z is "small" and "close to 0" iff its valuation ν(z) is large. The function |x-y|, supplemented by |0|=0, is the restriction of an absolute value defined on the field of fractions of the discrete valuation ring.


A DVR is compact if and only if it is complete and its residue field R/M is a finite field.


Examples of complete DVRs include


For a given DVR, one often passes to its completion, a complete DVR containing the given ring that is often easier to study. This completion procedure can be thought of in a geometrical way as passing from rational functions to power series, or from rational numbers to the reals.


Returning to our examples: the ring of all formal power series in one variable with real coefficients is the completion of the ring of rational functions defined (i.e. finite) in a neighborhood of 0 on the real line; it is also the completion of the ring of all real power series that converge near 0. The completion of ${\displaystyle \mathbb {Z} _{(p)}=\mathbb {Q} \cap \mathbb {Z} _{p}}$ (which can be seen as the set of all rational numbers that are p-adic integers) is the ring of all p-adic integers Z_p.