Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/ii/paper-4/18j/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 ii Paper 4 18J a Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Fix a primitive th root of unity . The th cyclotomic polynomial isIts roots are exactly the roots of unity of order .
Partitioning all th roots of unity by exact order gives the cyclotomic factorizationWe prove by induction on . The assertion is clear for . If it holds for every proper divisor of , thenThe denominator is monic and belongs to . Exact polynomial division shows that the quotient lies in , and Gauss's lemma makes this monic quotient an element of .
Now let . The minimal polynomial of over divides , so every -conjugate of is another primitive root and lies in . The extension is therefore normal. It is separable because the characteristic is zero, and hence it is Galois.
Every hasfor some . Since generates the extension, this gives an injective homomorphismThe group on the right is abelian, so the Galois group is abelian, as summarized by the cyclotomic field construction.
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