Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/ib/paper-3/11e/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ib Paper 3 11E b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The polynomial satisfies the Eisenstein criterion at the prime two: every nonleading coefficient is divisible by two, and the constant coefficient is not divisible by four. Thus it is irreducible over and is the minimal polynomial of every one of its roots. Part (a) givesButIn the quotient, the two nonzero classes of and multiply to zero. They are nonzero because their nonzero representative degrees are less than five. The quotient is not an integral domain, so is not a prime ideal.
For ring homomorphisms preserving the identity, an image of in the Gaussian integers would satisfy . The minimal polynomial of over would then be , of degree five. This is impossible because has degree at most two. Thus there is no unital homomorphism . If homomorphisms are instead allowed not to preserve the identity, the zero map exists; every nonzero homomorphism into this integral domain is unital, because the image of one is a nonzero idempotent and hence one.
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