Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 4 18F ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
If , thenLetThis is the nonidentity automorphism of . By extending an embedding that sends to , and composing with if necessary, chooseThenThe eight elementsare distinct, and exhaust the Galois group. Thus the dihedral Galois action on four radical roots gives
Now suppose is a square in . Then , so every automorphism fixes . We are in case (i) with , and therefore
Conversely, suppose the group is the Klein four-group. Label the rootsThe three nonidentity elements in its transitive action are the three double transpositions. Each fixes : they send the ordered pair respectively towhose products all equal . Hence every element of the Galois group fixes . By the Artin fixed-field theorem,Therefore is a square in . This proves the Klein-four criterion for an irreducible even quartic:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 ii Paper 3 18J d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Let . Sincepart (b) gives . The roots of are , all in , so is its splitting field and is Galois. Its action on the four roots is transitive; the order-eight entry in the list from part (a) is . Therefore
For an explicit dihedral Galois action on four radical roots, defineThen and . The subgroup lattice is determined byHere lies in all three order-four subgroups; lie in ; and lie in .
Reversing inclusions under the Galois correspondence gives the complete field latticeThe incidence is likewise reversed: lies in ; lies in that field, , and ; and lies in that field, , and . The hint verifies the last two quartic fields through and .