Is the category of fields small?

118 Views Asked by At

I know that the category of groups $\textbf{(Group)}$ and rings $\textbf{(Ring)}$ are both only locally small, since any non-empty set can be made into a group or a ring.

However, when this comes to fields, I'm not sure if there's also an explicit construction making an infinite set to a field (we know not all finite set can be a field). Therefore I cannot confirm if the category of fields is small.

Thanks for any suggestion in advance.

1

There are 1 best solutions below

5
On BEST ANSWER

Let's fix the rational numbers. Right? That's just one set now. Given any other set which is disjoint from $\Bbb Q$, consider the transcendental extension $\Bbb Q(A)$, as a field. This alone shows that every set can be embedded into a field. And easy cardinality check will show that $|A|=|\Bbb Q(A)|$ whenever $A$ is infinite.

In particular, via transport of structure any infinite set can be made into a field. And so far we're only talking about purely transcendental extensions of $\Bbb Q$. This can be repeated with any field instead of $\Bbb Q$ (e.g. $\Bbb F_2$) as well.