ON REALIZING FINITE ABELIAN GROUPS AS GALOIS

GROUPS OVER Q
VIKAS SRIVASTAVA

Abstract. In this short article , I will try to show How every finite abelain
group occurs as Galois group over Q.Hence it solves the abelian case of celebrated Inverse Galois Problem.

Contents
n

1. Splitting field of x 1 : Cyclotomic Fields

2. Galois group of the cyclotomic field Q(n )
3. Some Important propositions and corollary
4. Discussion:Coming to the main result
5. Conclusion
References

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1. Splitting field of xn 1 : Cyclotomic Fields

Consider the splitting field of polynomial xn 1 over Q.The roots of this polynomial are called the nth roots of unity. Over the field of complex numbers C there
are n distinct solution of the equation namely the elements e2ki/n .It follows that
C contains a splitting field of for xn 1. A generator of the cyclic group of all nth
roots of unity is called a primitive nth root of unity. n = e2i/n .All other nth roots
of unity are power of n Some of the primitive nth root of unity in C for some small
values of n are
1 = 1
2 = 1
3
3 = 1+i
2
4 = i
Definition 1.1. The field Q(n ) is called the cyclotomic field of nth roots of unity
Remark 1.2. Lets determine the degree of this extension.consider the case when
n = p a prime.
xp 1 = (x 1)(xp1 + xp2 + ... + x + 1)
p

1
and since p 6= 1 it follows that p is a root of the polynomial p (x) = xx1
which is irreducible by Eisensteins Criterion. It follows that p (x) is the minimal
polynomial of p over Q, so that

[Q(p : Q] = p 1
Date: May 2016.
1

VIKAS SRIVASTAVA

2. Galois group of the cyclotomic field Q(n )

The Galois group of the cyclotomic field Q(n ) of nth roots of unity is isomorphic
to the multiplicative group (Z/nZ) . The isomorphism is given explicitly by the
map
(Z/nZ) Gal(Q(n )/Q)
with map defined by a(mod n) going to a where a is the automorphism defined
by a (n ) = na .It is not very hard to check that this is indeed a isomorphism.
Example 2.1. The field Q(5 ) is Galois over Q with Galois group (Z/5Z)
= Z/4Z.
3. Some Important propositions and corollary
Proposition 3.1. Let K1 and K2 be Galois Extension of a field F .Then
1) The intersection of K1 and K2 is Galois over F .
2) The composite K1 K2 is Galois over F .The Galois group is isomorphic to the
subgroup
H = {(, )||K1 K2 = |K1 K2 }
of the direct product Gal(K1 /F ) Gal(K2 /F ) consisting of elements whose restriction to the intersectionK1 K2 are equal.
Proof. For proof see Dummit and Foote see Chapter 14 Galois theory

Corollary 3.2. Corollary Let K1 and K2 be Galois Extension of a field F with

K1 K2 = F then
Gal(K1 K2 /F )
= Gal(K1 /F ) Gal(K2 /F )
4. Discussion:Coming to the main result
p

a2

...p

ak

k
Suppose that n = pa1 1 ...pakk since n2
is the primitive pa1 1 th root of
unity,the field K1 = Q(pa1 1 ) is a subfield of Q(n ). Similarly for each i we can
do this. The composite of the field contains the product pa1 1 pa2 2 ...pak which is
k
a primitive nth root of unity,hence the composite field is Q(n ).Since the degree
of extensions [Ki : Q] = (pai i ) using the above proposition and corollary we can
summarize the result as
Let n = pa1 1 ...pakk be the decomposition of a positive integers into distinct prime
powers.Then the cyclotomic fields Q(pai ) i = 1, ...k intersect only in the field Q
i
and their composite is the cyclotomic field Q(n ). We have

Gal(Q(n )/Q)
= Gal(Q(pa1 1 )/Q) Gal(Q(pa2 2 )/Q) ... Gal(Q(pak )/Q)
k

5. Conclusion
Now with the machinery developed above we can prove that every abelian group
appears as the Galois group of some extension of Q.
Theorem 5.1. Every abelian group appears as the Galois group of some extension
of Q.

ON REALIZING FINITE ABELIAN GROUPS AS GALOIS GROUPS OVER Q

Proof. Now suppose G is any finite abelian group.By the fundamental theorem for
abelain groups
G
= Zn1 Zn2 ... Znk
for some integers n1 , n2 , ..., nk . Assume that we know the result , Dirichlets Theorem on Primes in Arithmetic Progressions , so given any integer m there are infinitely many primes p with p 1 mod m.Given , the result,choose distinct primes
p1 , p2 , ..., pk such that
p1 1 mod m1
p2 1 mod m2
..
.
pk 1 mod mk
and let n = p1 p2 ...pk as above. By construction, ni divides pi so the group Zpi 1
and quotient of this subgroup is cyclic group of
has a subgroup Hi of order pin1
i
order n.Hence the quotient of (Z/nZ) by H1 ... Hk is isomorphic to the group
G. Now using the above results and Fundamental theorem we see that there is a
subfield of Q(p1 p2 ...pk ) which is Galois over Q with G as Galois group.

Hence we state the final result , Let G be any finite abelian group.Then there is
a subfield K of a cyclotomic field with Gal(K/Q)
=G
References
[1] Dummit and Foote, Abstract Algebra , Willey India
[2] Artin Algebra
[3] Algebra Serge Lang Springer