In: Advanced Math
3. Show that the Galois group of (x2 − 3)(x2 + 3) over Q is isomorphic to Z2 × Z2.
4. Let p(x) be an irreducible polynomial of degree n over a finite field K. Show that its Galois group over K is cyclic of order n.
Proof: 3.
There is a factorization , which implies that the splitting field of is .
Since it follows that is a group of order .
There are two automorphisms of that are the identity on , namely , and which is determined by .
And for , there are two automorphisms of that agree with on and send to .
Therefore, there are automorphisms of determined by the actions on by the following table:
Since there are exactly elements of listed, and the order of the group is , it follows that the listed elements are all of the elements of the Galois group.
Since and it follows that .
Thus, every nonidentity element of has order so the Galois group is isomorphic to .