Introduction to Galois Theory

We apply the discussion from the last lecture to the case of field extensions. We show that the separable extensions remain reduced after a base change: the inseparability is responsible for eventual nilpotents. As our next subject, we introduce normal and Galois extensions and prove Artin's theorem on invariants. This week, the first graded assignment is given.

We state and prove the main theorem of these lectures: the Galois correspondence. Then we start doing examples (low degree, discriminant, finite fields, roots of unity).

We continue to study the examples: cyclotomic extensions (roots of unity), cyclic extensions (Kummer and Artin-Schreier extensions). We introduce the notion of the composite extension and make remarks on its Galois group (when it is Galois), in the case when the composed extensions are in some sense independent and one or both of them is Galois. The notion of independence is also given a precise sense ("linearly disjoint extensions"). This week, an ungraded assignment is given.

We finally arrive to the source of Galois theory, the question which motivated Galois himself: which equation are solvable by radicals and which are not? We explain Galois' result: an equation is solvable by radicals if and only if its Galois group is solvable in the sense of group theory. In particular we see that the "general" equation of degree at least 5 is not solvable by radicals. We briefly discuss the relations to representation theory and to topological coverings.

We build a tool for finding elements in Galois groups, learning to use the reduction modulo p. For this, we have to talk a little bit about integral ring extensions and also about norms and traces.This week, the final graded assignment is given.