Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/ib/paper-4/2f/iii/solution

Let denote the polynomial under consideration. The change is an automorphism of and preserves degrees, so it preserves reducibility. Its transformed polynomial is
It is monic; every other coefficient is divisible by , because is prime and ; and its constant coefficient is , not divisible by . The Eisenstein criterion proves that is irreducible, and therefore is irreducible. The argument also includes , when the polynomial is linear. This is the prime-index case of an irreducible polynomial arising as a cyclotomic polynomial.

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