Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/ii/paper-2/18h/iii/solution

A primitive sixth root of unity satisfies
which is irreducible over because its discriminant is . For the other polynomial choose , so and . Then , so this field already contains all six roots. The Eisenstein criterion at proves irreducible, giving a splitting field of degree six.
Put and . The first automorphism fixes and has order three. The second sends to its negative, so sends to ; hence and . These six distinct transformations exhaust the Galois group. Therefore
The presence of sixth roots of unity inside the splitting field is why this particular binomial has degree six rather than a generic twelve-degree splitting field.

New to topics? Read the docs here!