A compact Galois module is a compact profinite abelian group equipped with a continuous Galois group action. An abelian pro-p group is naturally a compact -module. A continuous action of the Galois group of a Zp-extension extends to its Iwasawa algebra of a Zp-extension. This compact topology differs from the discrete topology usually used in Galois cohomology.
A finite separable extension is solvable when its normal closure has a solvable group as Galois group. In characteristic zero it is contained in a radical tower after adjoining suitable roots of unity; containment need not mean it is itself a tower of radical adjunctions.
In the strict tower convention, a radical extension is a field obtained through finitely many adjunctions , . Some texts instead use the term for any subfield of such a tower. This distinction matters: solvability by radicals implies containment in a tower, and need not give a radical tower entirely inside the original field.
The absolute Galois group of a field is . It is a profinite group, the inverse limit of the Galois groups of finite Galois extensions. Its continuous actions on discrete modules are the coefficients for Galois cohomology.
The Galois closure of a finite separable extension is the smallest Galois extension in a fixed separable closure containing . It is generated by all the conjugates of . If and , their subgroup core is trivial. This is distinct from the existing group-theoretic normal closure.
For a finite Galois extension , intermediate fields correspond inclusion-reversingly to subgroups of . Normal subgroups correspond to Galois intermediate extensions.
When a field contains the th roots of unity and its characteristic does not divide , Kummer theory identifies cyclic extensions of degree dividing with suitable classes in . Cohomologically,
For nontrivial even in the full cyclotomic tower of , Kummer theory relates the p-ramified Iwasawa module to the reflected odd unramified Iwasawa module, up to pseudo-isomorphism. Here and is the Tate twist. The induced substitution on characteristic series is , where is the cyclotomic value of . Omitting either operation changes the interpolation convention.
When the characteristic differs from , the Kummer sequence gives . For , the positive-degree multiplicative groups are torsion. Thus the middle group is zero exactly when the first multiplicative group is -divisible and the second has zero -primary torsion.
For a number field , a finite set and , let consist of classes whose valuations outside are divisible by . It fits into . The S-unit group is finitely generated and the ideal class group is finite, so is finite. When contains primes dividing , this controls unramified multiplicative Kummer classes outside .
The square-class group identifies two nonzero elements of a field when their quotient is a square. Multiplication makes it an abelian group of exponent two, hence a vector space over . It records quadratic extensions and the images of Kummer theory for .
The valuation contributes one factor . The unit decomposition of the 2-adic Gaussian field contributes and the additive quotient . Thus there are sixteen square classes and fifteen quadratic extensions over this field.
The square class of is its image in the square-class group of a field . Two nonzero elements have the same square class exactly when their quotient is a square. Every element of this quotient has order dividing . Over the rational numbers, a square class has a unique signed squarefree integer representative.
When a field contains the relevant roots of unity, adjoining an th root of an element of gives a Kummer extension. Such extensions describe abelian extensions of exponent dividing .
Galois cohomology is the group cohomology of a Galois group acting on a module. For a discrete -module , the first group is the quotient of crossed homomorphisms by maps .
For a Finite Galois extension and a finite-dimensional -space with a semilinear action of its Galois group, the map is an isomorphism. The vectors are invariant and span by the Artin independence theorem. Choosing an invariant -basis then identifies the invariant space with its -span. The proof does not divide by the extension degree.
A splitting isomorphism of a central simple algebra with transports its Galois action to , giving a nonabelian first cohomology class. Conversely a cocycle gives a semilinear algebra action whose invariants descend to a central simple algebra. Equivalent cocycles give isomorphic fixed algebras. This gives a pointed-set bijection .
For an extension with Galois group , a semilinear action on an -space is an additive group action satisfying . Scalar coefficients are transformed along with vectors. Invariants form a -space, and Galois descent of vector spaces reconstructs the original space from it.
For a finite Galois module unramified outside a finite set , define as the classes in Galois cohomology whose restriction to inertia is zero at every finite prime outside . This means zero as a cohomology class, rather than zero for every possible representative. Passing to a finite Galois extension on which is constant reduces the finiteness problem to characters with bounded ramification and a finite restriction kernel.
A discrete Galois module over is an abelian group with a continuous action of the absolute Galois group . Continuity means that each element has an open stabilizer. Examples are the algebraic points of an elliptic curve, its finite torsion module , and the group of roots of unity . Galois cohomology takes continuous cocycles with values in such a module.
The module consists of the th roots of unity in a separable closure. If the field characteristic does not divide , it has elements and fits into the Kummer sequence . Its Galois action is the cyclotomic action; a generator gives a noncanonical identification with .
For a finite Galois extension , multiplicative Hilbert theorem 90 says . A multiplicative cocycle has the form . One proof forms a nonzero sum , using linear independence of field automorphisms. Its transformation law is , so gives . Passing to the algebraic closure gives , so the multiplicative Kummer sequence identifies with .
In a field of characteristic , the Frobenius map is an injective field endomorphism because
Consequently every element of an extension field has at most one th root.
The formal derivative of is .
In characteristic , the coefficient in a formal derivative vanishes exactly when divides .
Over a field of characteristic ,
for some polynomial . Indeed, zero derivative says every exponent with nonzero coefficient is divisible by .
A polynomial over a field is separable when it has no repeated root in a splitting field. Equivalently, it is coprime to its formal derivative.
If the characteristic of a field does not divide the positive integer , then is separable. Its formal derivative is , and a common root would have to be both nonzero and zero.
If is irreducible over a field of characteristic zero, then and . Thus cannot divide , so irreducibility gives . Consequently has no repeated root in any extension field.
For a finite extension , the automorphism group has order dividing . Indeed, Artin's theorem gives , while and the tower law gives the divisibility.
Let have degree with . If for some , then
Choosing with gives
so was already an th power in .
An element of a field extension is algebraic over when some nonzero polynomial in vanishes at .
The minimal polynomial of an algebraic element over is the unique monic polynomial of least positive degree in that vanishes at . It is irreducible, and its degree equals .
A primitive element of a finite extension is an element such that .
Fix a -basis of a finite extension of degree . The coordinates of are polynomial functions of the coordinates of , because multiplication in has fixed structure constants. The determinant of those coordinate columns is therefore a polynomial, and
Thus the primitive-element locus is the distinguished Zariski-open set , possibly empty for a non-simple extension.
Every finite separable extension is generated by one element: for some .
Let and for algebraically independent . The monomials with form a basis, whereas every satisfies . Thus but , so no primitive element of a field extension exists.
A finite separable extension is simple by the primitive element theorem. A simple separable extension is finite because its generator is separable and hence algebraic. Finite and simple does not imply separable: in characteristic , is finite and simple but purely inseparable.
If are nonsquares in a field of characteristic other than two, then
is a degree-four Galois extension with group . Its three quadratic intermediate fields are , , and .
Up to conjugacy, the transitive subgroups of are , , , , and .
If cyclically sends and fixes while negating , then and . These automorphisms realize as the Galois group of the corresponding quartic splitting field.
Let be irreducible, let be a root, and put . Its roots are
so its splitting field is . If , then and the Galois group is . If , then and the group is when , and otherwise.
For irreducible , the Galois group is exactly when is a square in . In the transitive Klein-four action on the roots , all three nonidentity double transpositions fix , forcing it into the fixed field .
A field homomorphism preserves addition, multiplication, and the multiplicative identity.
A field embedding is an injective field homomorphism. A -embedding fixes every element of the base field .
An embedding of a subfield into an algebraically closed field extends over an algebraic extension: for a simple extension, map its generator to a root of the transported minimal polynomial, then iterate or use Zorn lemma. If the larger extension is normal over the fixed base, its image under the extended embedding is itself.
Distinct field embeddings are linearly independent over as functions on . Thus a nontrivial linear combination cannot vanish on every element of .
For the proof, choose a vanishing relation with the fewest nonzero coefficients and normalize one coefficient to one. If , choose with . Evaluating at and subtracting times the relation evaluated at eliminates its th term but leaves a nonzero first coefficient, contradicting minimality.
If is finite, then any distinct -automorphisms of are linearly independent in the -vector space , whose dimension over is . Hence . In particular, a finite automorphism group satisfies .
If has order and the fixed field contains a primitive th root , then
satisfies . Independence of the powers of ensures that is nonzero for some .
An embedding of extends across by sending it to a root of its transformed minimal polynomial. There are between one and the relative degree many choices, with equality for a separable extension.
For finite extensions , the degrees multiply:
If is a -basis of and is an -basis of , then the products form a -basis of : spanning follows by expanding first over and then over , while -linear independence follows by grouping coefficients of each and using both basis properties.
The splitting field of a polynomial over is the smallest field extension of in which the polynomial is a product of linear factors.
A root of an irreducible polynomial in an extension field defines a base-field embedding of the polynomial quotient by evaluation. Conversely the image of the residue class of the variable determines the embedding and is a root. This counts embeddings through separable minimal polynomials.
Every nonconstant polynomial has a splitting field of finite degree over . It is constructed by adjoining a root of an irreducible factor and repeating over the enlarged field. Any two splitting fields of over are isomorphic by an isomorphism that fixes . Inside one fixed algebraic closure, the field generated by all roots is unique as a subfield.
If is the positive real root and , then the roots of are
Their splitting field over is .
A finite extension is normal exactly when it is the splitting field over of some polynomial. For the forward direction, multiply the minimal polynomials of finitely many generators of ; normality puts all their roots in . The reverse direction follows because a -embedding permutes the roots of a polynomial and hence preserves its splitting field.
Let in characteristic , let , let split over , and let split over . If are the roots of and , then the Frobenius endomorphism makes each unique and
because . Thus is already the splitting field of over , and every root of is purely inseparable over .
Let have irreducible factors of degrees . A root of a degree- factor lies in exactly when divides . Consequently the splitting field of is
An algebraic extension is normal when every irreducible polynomial over with a root in splits in . For finite extensions, equivalently every -embedding into an algebraic closure has image .
An algebraic extension is separable when every element has a minimal polynomial with distinct roots.
An algebraic element over is separable when its minimal polynomial over has no repeated root in a splitting field. For an irreducible polynomial , this is equivalent to , because then .
An algebraic extension in characteristic is purely inseparable when every one of its elements is purely inseparable over the base field.
An algebraic element is purely inseparable over when for some .
An element is purely inseparable over exactly when its minimal polynomial has the form
To prove the nontrivial direction, repeatedly factor a zero formal derivative through until the remaining irreducible polynomial has nonzero derivative. Since has only the root , that remaining separable polynomial must be linear.
Over , the polynomial is irreducible by the Eisenstein criterion in . In any extension containing a root , characteristic gives
It therefore has exactly one distinct root, of multiplicity .
If is purely inseparable, an embedding of into an algebraic closure has at most one extension to : if , the image of must be the unique th root of the image of . Existence in a normal overfield therefore implies uniqueness.
A field automorphism is a bijective ring homomorphism from a field to itself. The automorphisms fixing a specified subfield form a Galois group when the extension is Galois.
A finite extension is Galois when it has automorphisms fixing .
For a finite Galois extension with group , there is such that the elements form a -basis. Equivalently the additive -module is a regular representation. Over p-adic fields, its p-adic lattices are thus commensurable with regular lattices; this is useful in Herbrand quotient calculations after applying a p-adic logarithm to deep principal units.
The Galois group consists of the field automorphisms of that fix pointwise. For a finite Galois extension, its order is .
A separable extension has embeddings in an algebraic closure, and normality makes every one an automorphism of . Hence a finite normal separable extension is Galois.
An abelian extension is a Galois extension whose Galois group is an abelian group.
The multiplicative group is cyclic of order , so it contains all th roots of unity when divides and the characteristic does not divide .
If a field has characteristic prime to and contains all th roots of unity, then is a cyclic Galois extension of degree , with automorphisms .
The Galois group of a separable polynomial acts faithfully on its roots; this action is transitive exactly when the polynomial is irreducible.
Suppose a group of field automorphisms acts transitively on elements , and each has a unique th root in a stable extension. If every automorphism extends, it sends to the unique root above its image of , so the extended group acts transitively on the .
Let be irreducible and separable in characteristic , and put . Every monic irreducible factor of is either itself or separable. Indeed, if were inseparable, then ; divisibility of into forces , hence and .
Under the same hypotheses, is reducible exactly when every coefficient of is a th power in . If , then
Conversely, if is reducible, all its irreducible factors are separable. Its zero derivative forces every factor multiplicity to be divisible by , so it is a th power in and all its coefficients are th powers.
Over , Frobenius acts on roots of an irreducible degree- polynomial as an -cycle. Factor degrees therefore give its cycle type.
At an unramified prime, the degrees of the irreducible factors of a polynomial modulo that prime give the cycle type of an element of the Galois group.
is the monic polynomial whose roots are the primitive th roots of unity. It belongs to and is irreducible over .
Partitioning the roots of by their exact orders gives
Inductively, the product over proper divisors is a monic polynomial in . Division of by this monic polynomial stays in and has zero remainder, proving that .
Every cyclotomic polynomial is an irreducible polynomial over . If a monic irreducible factor contains a primitive root , then it also contains for every prime number : otherwise, writing , reduction modulo and the Frobenius endomorphism give . Some irreducible factor would then divide both and , giving a repeated factor of , contrary to separability of roots of unity. Iterating over the prime factors of every integer coprime to shows that contains all primitive th roots, so .
The thirtieth cyclotomic polynomial is
Indeed,
If the prime does not divide , then is square-free over because its derivative is coprime to it. Its factor is therefore separable modulo .
If is the splitting field of over a characteristic-zero field , choosing a primitive root gives an injection
It is surjective exactly when is irreducible over .
A cyclotomic field is generated by a root of unity. If and is primitive, every -conjugate of is a power and already lies in . Thus is Galois, and its Galois group embeds in , so it is abelian.
Cyclotomic units include roots of unity and suitable ratios in cyclotomic fields. Compatible roots make these ratios norm-compatible along cyclotomic towers. Their closed norm-limit module is a concrete submodule of global units, and its local images generate the power series in the Iwasawa main conjecture.
A cyclotomic Euler system consists of units in auxiliary cyclotomic extensions satisfying compatible norm relations. Reducing at carefully chosen auxiliary primes and descending these relations bounds class-group modules. Combined with global unit-index formulas, this supplies an alternative route to the Iwasawa main conjecture.
Every field contains and is totally ramified over it at the prime above . The class number divisibility under total ramification therefore shows that its class number is divisible by three. Its ring of integers is not a principal ideal domain. The degrees strictly increase, giving infinitely many distinct examples.
The prime is totally ramified in , whose degree is . The displayed equality is an equality of ideals in its ring of integers of a number field, and the residue field is .
For an odd prime , the unique quadratic subfield of is the displayed field. A quadratic Gauss sum squares to , and the cyclic Galois group has a unique subgroup of index two.
For a prime , the cyclotomic polynomial of a primitive th root of unity is
It is irreducible over , so adjoining one root gives a field of degree .
For an odd prime and a primitive th root ,
For a primitive fifth root , the element satisfies . Thus the fixed field of complex conjugation is
The roots of unity in form a cyclic group of order
For a primitive seventh root of unity ,
where . Its four intermediate fields correspond to the four subgroups of the cyclic group .
The unique quadratic subfield of is
The conjugate period is , and
The unique cubic subfield is the maximal real subfield
and
It is the fixed field of complex conjugation.
The Galois group of is
Its only subfield degrees over are , and every subfield is Galois because this group is abelian.
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Galois theory is a branch of abstract algebra that studies the relationships between field extensions and group theory, particularly focusing on the solvability of polynomial equations. Named after the mathematician Évariste Galois, it provides a powerful framework for understanding how the roots of polynomials are related to the symmetry properties of the equations. The core ideas of Galois theory can be summarized as follows: 1. **Field Extensions**: A field extension is a bigger field that contains a smaller field.