Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 17I c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The cyclotomic polynomial is irreducible: replacing by gives an Eisenstein polynomial at seven. Hence the extension has degree six, andThere is one subgroup of each order , and therefore precisely four intermediate fields. The trivial subgroup fixes ; the whole group fixes . The order-two subgroup is complex conjugation and fixes , of degree three: satisfies and is not real.
The order-three subgroup fixes . Its other conjugate is . Expanding products and using gives and . Thus , and this fixed field is , of degree two. These generators have the required degrees and are fixed by the indicated subgroups, so the Galois correspondence proves they are the full fixed fields.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 141 4 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The fiber monodromy is periodic when isotopy is allowed to move the boundary, in the sense of a periodic surface homeomorphism. Here is a justification from the Seifert fibered space structure, rather than a special formula about torus knots. Its base is a disk with cone-point orders . The fiber Seifert surface is an incompressible surface because its inclusion in the mapping torus is injective on fundamental groups. It is also a boundary-incompressible surface: lift a proposed boundary-compressing disk to the infinite cyclic cover and project to . This would homotope an essential arc of into , contradicting its essentiality. The classification of incompressible surfaces in Seifert fibered spaces therefore applies. A vertical surface in a Seifert fibered space has zero intersection with a regular Seifert fiber, whereas the fibration class evaluates on as . Thus the Seifert surface is isotopic to a horizontal surface in a Seifert fibered space, with intersections per regular orbit.
Following the oriented Seifert fibers from one intersection to the next gives a first-return homeomorphism of the horizontal topological surface. It is a representative of the fiber monodromy, and its -th power is the identity. It has order : a regular orbit meets the connected horizontal surface in a Seifert fibered space in cyclically ordered points. This realizes the periodic case of the Nielsen–Thurston classification theorem. It is neither an Anosov homeomorphism nor a pseudo-Anosov homeomorphism.
There is a boundary convention here. A representative fixed pointwise on the boundary is not periodic relative to the boundary: its -th power is a boundary Dehn twist (with sign determined by the return-map convention). Capping the boundary, or allowing it to rotate during isotopy, gives the finite-order representative intended by “periodic”. This distinguishes periodic surface type from literal finite order in the mapping class group relative to the boundary.
For any fibered knot, its Alexander module is with the deck transformation given by homological monodromy, so its Alexander polynomial of a knot is up to a unit. The general Turaev torsion relation and part (b) therefore giveThis rational expression is a polynomial: in its factorization into cyclotomic polynomials, cancels all denominator factors. It is monic, has constant coefficient one, and has polynomial degree . The characteristic polynomial has polynomial degree , is monic, and has constant coefficient , because homological monodromy preserves the intersection form. These facts remove the unit ambiguity and giveThe sign change between and is trivial because is even. As a separate geometric check, the orbifold Euler characteristic of the base is , and its -sheeted horizontal surface in a Seifert fibered space has Euler characteristic .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 2 20G a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The cyclotomic polynomial of the primitive th root isBy the irreducibility of cyclotomic polynomials, this is the minimal polynomial of over . The prime cyclotomic field degree therefore gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 3 18F Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let be a splitting field of over . Its formal derivative isThe assumption on the characteristic of says that in . Any root of is nonzero, and hence . Thus and have no common root, so is a separable polynomial. Since it has degree and splits over , it has exactly distinct roots. This is the separability of roots of unity.
Fix a primitive root of unity . Define the th cyclotomic polynomial byIt is monic and has degree given by the Euler totient function . Partitioning all th roots of unity according to their exact multiplicative order gives the cyclotomic factorizationWe now prove by mathematical induction that . The base case is . If the result holds for every proper divisor of , thenis monic and belongs to . Polynomial division of by the monic integer polynomial produces a quotient and remainder in . The factorization over says that the remainder is zero and the quotient is , proving the claim.
It remains to prove irreducibility of cyclotomic polynomials. Let be a monic irreducible polynomial dividing , let be a root of , and write . We claim that is a root of for every prime number . Otherwise is a root of , so is a root of . Since is the minimal polynomial of over , Gauss lemma for polynomials givesAfter reduction of an integer polynomial modulo a prime, the Frobenius endomorphism givesChoose an irreducible factor of the nonconstant monic polynomial . Then , so . The cyclotomic factorization would then make divide over . This is impossible because its derivative is coprime to it when .
Thus for every prime . Iterating this fact over a prime factorization shows that whenever . These are all primitive th roots, soBecause divides , equality holds and . Hence every cyclotomic polynomial is irreducible over .
Finally, direct multiplication givesAlsoApplying the cyclotomic factorization to the two factors on the right givesand thereforeSince , cancellation yieldsThe thirtieth cyclotomic polynomial is irreducible over by the theorem just proved, so is irreducible.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ii Paper 1 18I b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The seventh cyclotomic polynomial isIt is irreducible over , and all its roots , , lie in . Hence is a degree-six Finite Galois extension, withThe group is cyclic of order six; for example,
By the Galois correspondence, the subfields are the fixed fields of the four subgroups of :Thus these are all the subfields.
For the Quadratic Gaussian period in the seventh cyclotomic field, putThe cyclotomic relation gives , while direct multiplication gives . HenceIts discriminant is , so
For the real cubic subfield of the seventh cyclotomic field, divideby . With ,soThis cubic has no rational root, and therefore
The requested primitive elements, minimal polynomials, and automorphism groups are consequentlyMore explicitly, the nontrivial automorphism of sendsand the three automorphisms of cyclically permute
Finally, is abelian, so every subgroup is normal. The subextensions of an abelian Galois extension theorem shows that
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 18I c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The cyclotomic polynomial iswhere is primitive. Partitioning all th roots by exact order gives the cyclotomic factorizationInduct on . The quotient of the monic integer polynomial by the product of the already constructed monic , , lies in and is monic. Gauss lemma then shows that this quotient lies in .
If the prime does not divide , then over ,Thus has no repeated root. Every factor, including the reduction of , is square-free, proving the Separability of a cyclotomic polynomial modulo p.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 136 5 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The translated cyclotomic polynomialis Eisenstein at . Hence generates a totally ramified extension of degreeEvery automorphism sends to for a unique . This gives an injectionand equality of orders makes it an isomorphism.
Normalize the Local Artin map so that maps to arithmetic Frobenius on the maximal unramified extension. For , define its action on bywhere using rather than gives the opposite Frobenius convention. These compatible maps, together with the image of , define reciprocity on and hence on every finite abelian extension by the Local Kronecker-Weber theorem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 ii Paper 4 18J a Solution 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.
Prime cyclotomic field degree Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
For a prime , the cyclotomic polynomial of a primitive th root of unity isIt is irreducible over , so adjoining one root gives a field of degree .