College of the Holy Cross, Spring 2010 Math 352, Midterm 1 Solutions Monday, March 22

All the numbered problems on this exam are weighted equally (some have two parts, but that counts as one problem). Choose 6 of the following 7 problems to do, and clearly mark which problem you do not want graded. You may use any results from class or from the text, except for homework exercises unless explicitly stated otherwise. To get full credit for your answers, you must fully explain your reasoning. 1. (a) Let R be a commutative ring, and let A be any subset of R. Show that the annihilator of A, Ann(A) = {r R | ra = 0 for all a A}, is an ideal. (b) Give an example of a ring R and a non-zero subset A of R such that Ann(A) has exactly three elements.

(a) First, note that 0 Ann(A) since 0a = 0 for all a A. Thus Ann(A) is not empty. Now, use the ideal test. Suppose that x, y Ann(A), and show that x y Ann(A). Since x, y Ann(A), we have xa = ya = 0 for all a A, and thus (x y)a = xa ya = 0 0 = 0 for all a A. Thus x y Ann(A). Suppose that x Ann(A) and r R, and show that rx and xr are in Ann(A). Note that (rx)a = r(xa) = r0 = 0 for all a A, and thus rx Ann(A). Since R is commutative, we have xr = rx Ann(A). Thus Ann(A) is an ideal. (b) Note that we had better not choose R to be an integral domain, since Ann(A) = {0} for any A = {0} in an integral domain. Let R = Z6 , and take A = {0, 3}. Then Ann(A) = {0, 2, 4}, since any of these elements multiplied by either 0 or 3 yields 0.

2. Find innitely many monic polynomials f (x) Q[x] such that f (0) = 4 and Q[x]/ f (x) is a eld. Recall that a monic polynomial is a polynomial with leading coecient 1. From Theorem 14.4, we know that Q[x]/ f (x) is a eld if and only if f (x) is maximal. But from Theorem 17.5, we know that f (x) is maximal if and only if f (x) is irreducible over Q. To produce lots of f (x) Q[x] that are irreducible, we need to use one of our irreducibility tests. The Eisenstein criterion will not work, since f (0) = 4 ensures that the constant coecient is 4, which is not divisible by any prime to just the rst power. So we look to the Mod p irreducibility test (Theorem 17.3). Consider the polynomial f (x) = x2 + 3x + 4. Modulo 3, we have f (x) = x2 + 1 Z3 [x]. This polynomial has degree 2, and so by Theorem 17.1 is irreducible if and only if it has no roots in Z3 . However, f (0) = 1 and f (1) = 2, and thus f (x) has no roots. Because of this and the fact that f (x) and f (x) have the same degree, Theorem 17.3 shows that f (x) is irreducible. This conclusion depended only on f (x) and the degree of f (x), and not on the exact coecients of f (x). Thus if we alter f (x) in a way that does not change f (x) or the degree of f (x), we will still have an irreducible polynomial. So consider the family of polynomials f (x) = x2 + 3nx + 4, where n Z. These are all irreducible by the previous remarks, they are monic, and they satisfy f (0) = 4.

3. (a) Suppose that R is a ring with unity and that I R is an ideal. Suppose further that u R is a unit and u I. Show that I = R. (b) Prove that the only ideals of a eld F are {0} and F itself. (a) Since u is a unit, it has an inverse u1 R with the property that u1 u = 1. Since I is an ideal, it is closed under multiplication by an arbitrary ring element, and so u I implies that u1 u I, and thus 1 I. Hence r1 I for all r R, and therefore r I for all r R. So R I. Clearly I R, showing that I = R. (b) Let I F be an ideal, and suppose that I = {0}. Then we may take some a I with a = 0. Since F is a eld, all non-zero elements are units, so a is a unit. By part (a) we then have I = F . This shows that either I = {0} or I = F .

4. Let F be a nite integral domain of prime characteristic p. Prove that the map : F F given by (x) = xp is a ring isomorphism (Note: for this problem, you may use results proved in the homework.) First, lets show that is a ring homomorphism, so we must show that (x + y) = (x) + (y) and (xy) = (x)(y) for all x, y F . The rst assertion is the same as (x + y)p = xp + y p , which we know by a homework problem is true (since the characteristic of F is p). The second assertion is the same as (xy)p = xp y p , which is true since F is commutative (an integral domain is a commutative ring by denition). Now lets show that is one-to-one. To do that, take x ker . Then (x) = 0, so xp = 0, and thus x xp1 = 0. If x = 0, then since F is an integral domain, we must have xp1 = 0. Repeating this argument, we eventually get x = 0, which is a contradiction. We conclude that x = 0, and thus ker = {0}. We then get that is onto automatically, since F is nite. Thus is a ring isomorphism.

5. Prove or disprove that the eld of real numbers is ring-isomorphic to the eld of complex numbers. We give a disproof. Suppose that : C R is an isomorphism, so that is 1-1, onto, and a ring homomorphism. Then (1) = 1 (since surjective), and (i) is a real number satisfying (i)2 + 1 = (i2 ) + (1) = (i2 + 1) = (0) = 0. But there is no real number x with x2 + 1 = 0, so we have a contradiction. Hence there cannot have been an isomorphism between C and R.

6. Construct a eld with 32 elements. Explain in detail why your construction is a eld and has precisely 32 elements. We wish to nd a polynomial f (x) Z2 [x] that is irreducible and has degree ve. The reason is that the irreducibility of f (x) implies that f (x) is maximal (Theorem 17.5), and thus that Z2 [x]/ f (x) is a eld (Theorem 14.4). Moreover, elements of Z2 [x]/ f (x) look like g(x) + f (x) , and using the division algorithm we may reduce g(x) to have degree at most four. There are ve coecients for a polynomial of degree at most four, and thus 25 choices for such a polynomial with coecients in Z2 . This shows that Z2 [x]/ f (x) has exactly 32 elements. To nd a suitable f (x), try f (x) = x5 + x + 1. If f (x) factors into non-units, then both factors must have degree at least one. However, neither can have degree exactly one since f (x) has no roots in Z2 . To show that no quadratic polynomial in Z2 [x] divides f (x), note that the only quadratics in Z2 [x] are x2 , x2 + 1, x2 + x, and x2 + x + 1. The rst three all have roots, and thus cannot divide f (x) (since f (x) has no roots). To handle x2 + x + 1, one can use long division to show the remainder of f (x) when divided by x2 + x + 1 is not zero. Therefore f (x) is irreducible.

 7. Show that Z[ 3] is not a principal ideal domain (PID). (Hint: show that 1 + 3 is irreducible but not prime, and then use a theorem from class.) To show that 1 + 3 is irreducible, suppose that 1 + 3 = xy. Then since N (1 + 3) = 4, we have 4 = N (x)N (y). If neither x nor y is a unit, then N (x) > 1 and N (y) > 1, and it follows that N (x) = N (y) = 2. Writing x = a + b 3, this gives a2 + 3b2 = 2. This implies that b = 0, hence a2 = 2, but this is impossible for a Z. Therefore either x or y is a unit, showing that 1 + 3 is irreducible. To show that 1 + 3 is not prime, note that (1 + 3)(1 3) = 4 = 2 2. Thus 1 + 3 divides 2. However, it is not true that 1 + 3 divides 2, since if so we 2 would have (1 + 3)(a + b 3) = 2, and working this out one obtains equations that cannot hold for a, b Z. From Theorem 18.3, we know that in a PID, an element is irreducible if and only if it prime. Since 1 + 3 is irreducible but not prime, it cannot be the case that is Z[ 3] is a PID.