Galois theory
In mathematics, Galois theory, originally introduced by Évariste Galois, provides a connection between field theory and group theory. This connection, the fundamental theorem of Galois theory, allows reducing certain problems in field theory to group theory, which makes them simpler and easier to understand.
Galois introduced the subject for studying roots of polynomials. This allowed him to characterize the polynomial equations that are solvable by radicals in terms of properties of the permutation group of their roots—an equation is solvable by radicals if its roots may be expressed by a formula involving only integers, nth roots, and the four basic arithmetic operations. This widely generalizes the Abel–Ruffini theorem, which asserts that a general polynomial of degree at least five cannot be solved by radicals.
Galois theory has been used to solve classic problems including showing that two problems of antiquity cannot be solved as they were stated (doubling the cube and trisecting the angle), and characterizing the regular polygons that are constructible (this characterization was previously given by Gauss but without the proof that the list of constructible polynomials was complete; all known proofs that this characterization is complete require Galois theory).
Galois' work was published by Joseph Liouville fourteen years after his death. The theory took longer to become popular among mathematicians and to be well understood.
Galois theory has been generalized to Galois connections and Grothendieck's Galois theory.
In the modern approach, one starts with a field extension L/K (read "L over K"), and examines the group of automorphisms of L that fix K. See the article on Galois groups for further explanation and examples.
The connection between the two approaches is as follows. The coefficients of the polynomial in question should be chosen from the base field K. The top field L should be the field obtained by adjoining the roots of the polynomial in question to the base field K. Any permutation of the roots which respects algebraic equations as described above gives rise to an automorphism of L/K, and vice versa.
In the first example above, we were studying the extension Q(√3)/Q, where Q is the field of rational numbers, and Q(√3) is the field obtained from Q by adjoining √3. In the second example, we were studying the extension Q(A,B,C,D)/Q.
There are several advantages to the modern approach over the permutation group approach.
Inseparable extensions[edit]
In the form mentioned above, including in particular the fundamental theorem of Galois theory, the theory only considers Galois extensions, which are in particular separable. General field extensions can be split into a separable, followed by a purely inseparable field extension. For a purely inseparable extension F / K, there is a Galois theory where the Galois group is replaced by the vector space of derivations, , i.e., K-linear endomorphisms of F satisfying the Leibniz rule. In this correspondence, an intermediate field E is assigned . Conversely, a subspace satisfying appropriate further conditions is mapped to . Under the assumption , Jacobson (1944) showed that this establishes a one-to-one correspondence. The condition imposed by Jacobson has been removed by Brantner & Waldron (2020), by giving a correspondence using notions of derived algebraic geometry.
