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Actual Question is to prove that, for a prime p and $a\in F_p$, $a\neq 0$, $f(x)=x^p-x+a$ is irreducible.

This is an exercise Question in Dummit Foote 13.5.5.

Hint : Prove that if $\alpha$ is a root of $f(x)$ then so is $\alpha+1$.

Proof: Suppose $f(\alpha)=0$ i.e., $\alpha^{p}-\alpha+a=0$ Consider $(\alpha+1)^{p}-(\alpha+1)+a=\alpha^p+1-\alpha-1+a=\alpha^{p}-\alpha+a=0$ . So, I proved that if $\alpha$ is a root of $f(x)$ then so is $\alpha+1$.

As further approach I have seen that no element of $F_p$ is a root because if $\alpha\in F_p$ is a root then so is $\alpha+1$ and so is $\alpha+2$ and so would be $0\in F_p$ which is a contradiction as $f(0)=0-0+a=a\neq 0$. So, No element of $F_p$ is a root.

Just by this he wants to say that $f(x)$ is irreducible i.e., if $f(x)$ has no root in $F_p$ then it is irreducible.

I am unable to proceed further in this line. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank You.

P.S : I have seen just now that this question was already answered. I thought of deleting this Question. But Mr.AymanHourieh gave another nice answer. So, i Request Not to close this as this would just give another answer.

Thank You

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    Hmm. What's the rule for differentiating the product of two functions again? Also, this question has been asked and answered here many times. I'm afraid this question may get closed very soon as a duplicate. – Jyrki Lahtonen Aug 03 '13 at 09:41
  • See the answers to this question for several different proof ideas with varying background requirements. – Jyrki Lahtonen Aug 03 '13 at 09:43

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