Scribd
Upload
27 views3 pages

Lecture 4

1) Any two splitting fields of a collection of polynomials over a field k are isomorphic. Specifically, if L is a splitting field of f over k and L' is a splitting field of f' (where f' is obtained by applying an isomorphism of k to the coefficients of f), then there is an isomorphism from L to L' that extends the original isomorphism of k. 2) A field extension k ⊂ K is a splitting field if any irreducible polynomial over k that has a root in K completely splits in K. 3) Any subfield of a splitting field is the splitting field of the polynomial when considered over that subfield. Therefore, any homomorphism of the

Uploaded by

ghukato awomi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
27 views3 pages

Lecture 4

1) Any two splitting fields of a collection of polynomials over a field k are isomorphic. Specifically, if L is a splitting field of f over k and L' is a splitting field of f' (where f' is obtained by applying an isomorphism of k to the coefficients of f), then there is an isomorphism from L to L' that extends the original isomorphism of k. 2) A field extension k ⊂ K is a splitting field if any irreducible polynomial over k that has a root in K completely splits in K. 3) Any subfield of a splitting field is the splitting field of the polynomial when considered over that subfield. Therefore, any homomorphism of the

Uploaded by

ghukato awomi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

LECTURE 4 : MORE ON SPLITTING FIELDS

In the last lecture, we learned that splitting fields exist over k for
any collection of polynomials from k[t]. Today we will see that any two
splitting fields are isomorphic. Once again we will see a proof only in
the case when the collection of polynomials we have is finite, which can
be reduced to the case of a single polynomial.
Proposition 1. Let us suppose we have an isomorphism of fields
0
φ:k→k
0 0
Let k ⊂ L be a splitting field of a polynomial f ∈ k[t] and k ⊂ L be
0 0
a splitting field for f = φ(f ) (i.e f is obtained by applying φ to the
coefficients of f ). Then we have an isomorphism
0
ϕ:L→L
such that
ϕ |k = φ.
The proof will utilize the following Lemma
0
Lemma 1. Let φ : k → k be an isomorphism of fields. Suppose
0
f ∈ k[t] is irreducible and f = φ(f ). If α is a root of f in some
0 0 0
extension k ⊂ K and β is a root of f in some extension k ⊂ K , then
there exists an isomorphism
0
ϕ : k(α) → k (β), ϕ(α) = β, ϕ |k = φ
Proof. The proof follows from combining the isomorphisms
k[t]
q1 : → k(α)
hf i
and 0
k [t] 0
q2 : 0 → k (β)
hf i
with φ, i.e
ϕ := q2 ◦ φ ◦ q1−1

Proof of Proposition 1. Let f0 be an irreducible factor of f with degree
0 0
atleast 2. Then we have f0 := φ(f ) is an irrducible factor of f . Let α
1
2 LECTURE 4 : MORE ON SPLITTING FIELDS
0 0
be a root of f0 in K and β a root of f0 in K . From Lemma 1, we can
extend the isomorphism φ to an isomorphism
0
ψ : k(α) → k (β)
which extends φ and ψ(α) = β. Now note that if we consider f and
0 0
f as polynomials over k(α) and k(β), then L and L are respectively
0
splitting fields of f and f over k(α) and k(β) respectively. But we
have
[L : k(α)] < [L : k]
Thus we can complete the proof by inducting on the degree of the
splitting field. 
Let us state without proof the following
Proposition 2. The statement of Proposition 1 holds true even in the
case of arbitrary family of polynomials {fi }i∈I .
We would now like to understand if we can characterize those ex-
tensions of k which are splitting fields. To begin with let us prove the
following using ideas we have already seen
Lemma 2. Let k ⊂ K be a splitting field of some polynomial f ∈ k[t].
Consider a subfield k ⊂ L ⊂ K. If Ω is an algebraically closed field
containing k, then any k-homomorphism
µ:L→Ω
can be extended to a k-homomorphism
µ̃ : K → Ω
Proof. Note that if we think of f a a polynomial over L, then K is the
0 0
splitting field of f over L as well. Now let L = µ(L) and K be the
0
subfield generated by roots of f over L . Then from Proposition 1, we
get an isomorphism
0
ϕ:K→K
which extends µ and thus we are done. 
Corollary 1. If h ∈ k[t] is an irreducible polyomial, which has a root
in K, then h splits in K[t].
Proof. Let Ω = K. Now let α be a root of h in K and β be any other
root of h in K. Then from Lemma 1, we can get an isomorphism
µ : k(α) → k(β), µ |k = Idk
From Lemma 2, we can extend µ to a homomorphism
µ̃ : K → K
LECTURE 4 : MORE ON SPLITTING FIELDS 3

Since K is generated over k by roots of f , so does µ̃(K). But then we


must have µ̃(K) = K. Thus we must have β ∈ K. Thus in particular
all the roots of h in K infact lies in K and hence h splits in K[t]. 
Lemma 3. Conversely an algebraic field extension k ⊂ K is a splitting
field if K has the property that any irreducible polynomial that has a
root in K splits in K.
Proof. clear 

You might also like