Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/ii/paper-4/18h/b/solution

Let be the splitting field over of . Its derivative is , so it has distinct roots. The roots are closed under addition, subtraction, multiplication, and inversion, using and . They therefore form a field with elements.
Every field with elements has multiplicative group of order , so every element satisfies ; it is therefore a splitting field of the same polynomial and is unique up to isomorphism. If an irreducible factor over has a root , its degree is , which divides by the tower law. In particular it is at most .

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