Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-ii-for-mathematics-and-philosophy-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2013/a2/solution

A monic quadratic polynomial over a field is irreducible exactly when it has no root in that field. Testing the nine choices of its two coefficients in gives
For clarity, a zero constant term gives a root at zero. Among constant term one, only the zero linear coefficient avoids roots at . Among constant term two, precisely the linear coefficients one and two avoid roots. This exhausts all choices.
Put . Its values at are respectively , so it has no linear factor. If this quartic were reducible, absence of a linear factor would force a factorization into two irreducible quadratics. Division by the three candidates above gives remainders respectively , all nonzero. Thus is an irreducible polynomial.
The quotient by an irreducible polynomial is a field consequently gives a field of elements. Its nonzero elements form a multiplicative group of a finite field of order . In this field, . Successive squaring gives
The latter is not one: otherwise the nonzero polynomial of degree below four would vanish at , contradicting its minimal polynomial. By Lagrange's theorem, . Since five is prime, its order is exactly five. Hence one answer is
Its other nonidentity powers are the remaining primitive fifth roots. It is unnecessary to prove that itself generates the entire multiplicative group.

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