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I'm trying to find the degrees of the irreducible factors of $X^{19}-1$ in $\mathbb{F}_7[X]$ and $\mathbb{F}_{7^3}[X]$.
I'm really struggling with how to approach this question. I did notice that $X^{19}-1=(X-1)\Phi_{19}(x)$, with $\Phi_{19}(x)$ being the 19th cyclotomic polynomial, so maybe that has something to do with finding the degrees.
I also thought of factorising $\Phi_{19}(x)$ in $\mathbb{F}_7[X]$ and $\mathbb{F}_{7^3}[X]$, but this seems very computation heavy and probably not the right way to do this.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1 Answers1

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Because of the primality of $19$,$\newcommand{\f}{\mathbb{F}}$ a field $K$ is the splitting field for $f:=X^{19}-1$ over $\f_7$ if and only if $K$ contains a primitive $19$-th root of unity over $\f_7$.

Let $K$ be the splitting field of $f$ over $\f_7$, and $\alpha$ be a primitive $19$-th root of unity. We have $K=\f_{7^n}$ for some $n$ by the uniqueness of finite fields. By Lagrange theorem, the multiplicative order of $\alpha$ divides $|K^\times|=7^n-1$, which translates to $19\mid 7^n-1$. It follows that $n$ is the least positive integer solution to $7^n-1\equiv 0\ (\text{mod}\ 19)$. An easy calculation shows that $n=3$.

Since the degree of any root of $f$ must divide $[K:\f_7]=3$, this shows that the degree of any irreducible factor of $f$ is $1$ or $3$. Also, $f$ splits completely over $\f_{7^3}$ because $\f_{7^3}$ is the splitting field for $f$.


By the way, the $\f_7$-factorization of $f$ is $$ (X + 6) (X^{3} + 2 X + 6) (X^{3} + 3 X^{2} + 3 X + 6) (X^{3} + 4 X^{2} + X + 6) (X^{3} + 4 X^{2} + 4 X + 6) (X^{3} + 5 X^{2} + 6) (X^{3} + 6 X^{2} + 3 X + 6) $$ and the $\f_{7^3}$-factorization of $f$ is $$ (X + 6) (X + 2\alpha + 4) (X + 2\alpha + 6) (X + 6\alpha) (X + \alpha^2 + 5\alpha + 3) (X + \alpha^2 + 5\alpha + 5) (X + 2\alpha^2 + 4\alpha) (X + 2\alpha^2 + 6\alpha) (X + 3\alpha^2 + \alpha + 4) (X + 3\alpha^2 + 4\alpha + 6) (X + 3\alpha^2 + 5\alpha + 5) (X + 4\alpha^2 + 3) (X + 4\alpha^2 + 3\alpha + 2) (X + 5\alpha^2 + \alpha + 1) (X + 5\alpha^2 + 3\alpha + 1) (X + 5\alpha^2 + 6\alpha + 3) (X + 6\alpha^2) (X + 6\alpha^2 + 5) (X + 6\alpha^2 + 3\alpha + 2), $$ where $\alpha^3+2\alpha+6=0$.

durianice
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