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 
 .