Tuesday, 15 October 2013

Elementary field theory, field extensions of the rationals of degree 2



I've just started some reading and doing exercises on field theory with Galois theory in scope, and have had some trouble with this exercise. I think I have simply misunderstood some of the definitions, and would like someone to set this straigth to me.





If K is an extension field of Q such that [K:Q]=2, prove that K=Q(d) for some square-free integer d.




Now, I understand that since the extension is finite-dimensional, so it has to be algebraic. So in particular if I take any element uK not in Q then it must be algebraic. Since the basis of K over Q is of size 2, the set {1,u,u2} must be linearly dependant and with it I could construct a polynomial of degree two with u as a root.



If the polynomial is f(x)=x2+ax+b, then I know u=a/2+a2/4b, where t=a2/4b cannot be a square or else uQ. I can see why Q(u)=Q(t).



In this way I get the chain of fields QQ(t)K, but because [K:Q]=2 and certainly QQ(t) then Q(t)=K. Now, my problem lies in proving that the field Q(t) actually can be represented by Q(d) where d is square-free.




What bothers me is the following. The polynomial f(x)=x22/3 has a root in 2/3 and is certainly irreducible in Q. But then the field Q(2/3) has dimension 2. How is this field equal to some field Q(d) where d is square-free?



EDIT: Thanks for the help in the comments. Obviously if n/m is a rational number in reduced form then nm is square-free and Q(n/m)=Q(nm). Feel free to close the question.


Answer



From the discussion in the original post it follows that if [K:Q]=2 then K=Q(t) where t is the square root of some rational number in reduced form, say t=n/m. Then gcd. Then the integer nm is clearly square-free and what is left to show is that \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{n/m}) = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{nm}).



Since \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{n/m}) = \{a+b\sqrt{n/m} \ | \ a,b \in \mathbb{Q}\}, letting a = 0, b = m we get that \sqrt{mn} \in \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{n/m}) and since \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{nm}) is the smallest field containing this element, we ge the inlusion \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{nm}) \subset \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{n/m}).



By a similar argument, \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{n/m}) \subset \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{nm}) since \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{nm}) = \{a+b\sqrt{nm} \ | \ a,b \in \mathbb{Q}\} and letting a=0, b = 1/m we get that \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{n/m}) \subset \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{nm}).




So in conclusion \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{n/m}) = \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{nm}) and every field extension of the rationals of degree 2 is on form \mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{d}) where d is square-free.


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