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 u∈K 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+√a2/4−b, where t=√a2/4−b cannot be a square or else u∈Q. I can see why Q(u)=Q(t).
In this way I get the chain of fields Q⊂Q(t)⊂K, but because [K:Q]=2 and certainly Q≠Q(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)=x2−2/3 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment