What are the units of cyclotomic integers?

I don't think there's a straightforward way to describe all the units. If $\zeta$ is a root of unity in the field, then $\frac{\zeta^k-1}{\zeta-1}$ is a unit whenever $k$ is relatively prime to the order of $\zeta$, and therefore products of such elements are units as well. This already gives you infinitely many units, and though they don't necessarily cover all units they do come close (this is a finite-index subgroup of the group of units).

Look up Kummer's Lemma, for instance here, and "Cyclotomic unit".


Maybe this "answer" will help you to clarify the concepts.

1:By definition, units in a given number field $K$ are the "norm one" integers. That is

$O_K^*$={$ u\in O_K|\ |N_{K|\mathbb{Q}}(u)|=1 $}.

2:For the structure of the group of units, one has the famous Dirichlet's unit theorem.

3:However, even in the case of cyclotomic fields, there is no explicit formula to produce the whole group of units. But we can describe its subgroup: "cyclotomic units"