Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-ii-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2006/b/2/a/solution

First address the general splitting-field request. A splitting field is an extension in which the polynomial factors into linear factors and which is generated over the base field by its roots. For a degree- polynomial, adjoin a root of an irreducible factor. The quotient construction in the preceding parts gives an extension of degree at most . Remove the resulting linear factor and repeat, now with a polynomial of degree over that extension. Induction and the tower law give
The resulting field is generated by the roots and is a splitting field. Repeated roots or inseparability can only reduce the required degrees; separability was not used.
For the specified cubic, put and . Its splitting field is . Eisenstein criterion at two gives . This cubic field is real and therefore does not contain the nonreal , whose quadratic polynomial is . Consequently

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