Not to be confused with Fundamental theorem of algebra.
In Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (1801) Gauss proved the unique factorization theorem [1] and used it to prove the law of quadratic reciprocity.[2]
In mathematics, the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, also called the unique factorization theorem and prime factorization theorem, states that every integer greater than 1 can be represented uniquely as a product of prime numbers, up to the order of the factors.[3][4][5] For example,
The theorem says two things about this example: first, that 1200 can be represented as a product of primes, and second, that no matter how this is done, there will always be exactly four 2s, one 3, two 5s, and no other primes in the product.
The requirement that the factors be prime is necessary: factorizations containing composite numbers may not be unique
(for example, ).
This theorem is one of the main reasons why 1 is not considered a prime number: if 1 were prime, then factorization into primes would not be unique; for example,
The theorem generalizes to other algebraic structures that are called unique factorization domains and include principal ideal domains, Euclidean domains, and polynomial rings over a field. However, the theorem does not hold for algebraic integers.[6] This failure of unique factorization is one of the reasons for the difficulty of the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. The implicit use of unique factorization in rings of algebraic integers is behind the error of many of the numerous false proofs that have been written during the 358 years between Fermat's statement and Wiles's proof.
^Gauss (1986, Art. 16)
^Gauss (1986, Art. 131)
^Long (1972, p. 44)
^Pettofrezzo & Byrkit (1970, p. 53)
^Hardy & Wright (2008, Thm 2)
^In a ring of algebraic integers, the factorization into prime elements may be non unique, but one can recover a unique factorization if one factors into ideals.
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