Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/iii/paper-28/1/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 iii Paper 28 1 Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
A set of prime numbers has Dirichlet density if the following limit exists:Equivalently, the denominator can be , since that sum is . Adding or removing finitely many prime numbers leaves the Dirichlet density unchanged.
Put and . This is the splitting field of , whose four roots of a polynomial are . The polynomial is an Eisenstein polynomial at , so . Since is contained in the real numbers, it does not contain , giving . Thus is a Galois extension of degree . Its Galois group is the dihedral group of order : the field automorphisms , and , satisfy and .
For an odd prime number , the condition means that the finite field contains all fourth roots of unity. Under this condition, is a quartic residue exactly when has a root in ; multiplying that root by gives all four distinct roots. Conversely, complete splitting of over gives both a fourth root of and a primitive fourth root of unity, so it also forces .
The polynomial discriminant of is . Hence every odd prime number is unramified in , and the root-splitting criterion is equivalent to its Frobenius automorphism acting trivially on all the roots. Since the roots generate , this is equivalent to the Frobenius automorphism being the identity, or to being a completely split prime of . The Chebotarev density theorem says that the unramified prime numbers with Frobenius conjugacy class have Dirichlet density . Here , so
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