What's the 2-adic value of $\sqrt3 + \frac1{1+\sqrt3}$?

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What's the 2-adic value of $\sqrt3 + \dfrac1{1+\sqrt3}$?

To start off, I have that to admit a square root, a 2-adic unit must be of the form $4^a (8b+1)$ for some $a \in \mathbb{N}$, $b \in \mathbb{Z}$.

I don't think $3$ is of that form, so I can only make this work if I extend $\Bbb Z_2$

I'm tentatively interpreting this answer as saying that I can simply add $\omega=\sqrt3$ as an additional unit without too much going wrong.

From there I'm running blind. I feel like I need to turn it into a polynomial then Hensel lift to find my answer. Total guesswork here but I have that my number will be a solution to the quotient of the polynomials $\omega^2+\omega+1$ and $\omega+1$ so if I can find the 2-adic value of those I'll be done.

I have that $\omega^2+\omega+1$ will be odd and $\omega+1$ will be even so I'll get a number in $\Bbb Q_2\setminus\Bbb Z_2$, and from there I'm even out of guesswork.

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Let me try to cast some light on the issue.

First, don’t use omega here for an irrationality, ’cause half the people reading your question will immediately think of a primitive cube root of unity, $\omega^2+\omega+1=0$. If you don’t want the pain of repeately typing “$\sqrt3$”, then call this irrationality, say, $r$, for “root”.

Second, you should choose either the multiplicative valuation $|*|_2$ for which $|2|_2=\frac12$, or the additive valuation $v_2(*)$, for which $v_2(2)=1$. I prefer the additive one, partly because of typographical simplicity. You seem to have had this in mind in your question.

You know that $3$ is a $2$-adic unit, so that $v(3)=0$. Since $r^2=3$, you have $v(r)=\frac12v(3)=0$ as well. But a crucial quantity here is $1+r$, whose $\Bbb Z_2$-minimal polynomial is $X^2-2X-2$: the (field-theoretic) norm of $1+r$ is $-2$, and the rule for extending valuations is: if $\alpha$ is of degree $m$ over $\Bbb Q_p$, then $$ v(\alpha)=\frac1mv_p\bigl(\mathbf N^{\Bbb Q_p(\alpha)}_{\Bbb Q_p}(\alpha)\bigr)\,. $$ That’s the norm there in the formula, a function from the superscripted field to the subscripted field. In our case $\frac12v_2(-2)=\frac12$. Much more directly, in this case, you certainly expect that $v_2(1+r)=v_2(1-r)$, just because they’re conjugates, so that $v_2(1+r)=\frac12v_2\bigl((1+r)(1-r)\bigr)=\frac12v(-2))=\frac12$.

As to the quantity that stimulated this question, namely $$ \sqrt3+\frac1{1+\sqrt3}=r+\frac1{1+r}\,, $$ your two terms have valuation $0$ and $-\frac12$, so that the sum has valuation $-\frac12$