Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/ib/paper-2/11g/b/ii/solution

Let be irreducible. If , then . A nonzero integer that is neither a unit nor, up to sign, a prime number factors nontrivially in , so necessarily for a prime .
Now suppose and write . If , then
and both factors lie in and are nonunits. If , choose a prime ; then is again a factorization into two nonunits of , since . Both cases contradict irreducibility. Hence

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