Cyclotomic polynomial as minimal polynomial

abstract-algebracyclotomic-polynomialsgalois-theoryroots-of-unity

I'm in the process of learning Galois theory and got stuck on Wikipedia's alternative definition of the $n$th cyclotomic polynomial as the "minimal polynomial over the field of the rational numbers of any primitive nth-root of unity". Is this really enough to prove that the $n$th cyclotomic polynomial is in fact the one whose roots are all the primitive $n$th roots of unity?

I can prove that the primitive $n$th roots of unity are roots of the $n$th cyclotomic polynomial. Proof: All primitive $n$th roots of unity $\zeta_n$ share the same minimal polynomial, i.e. the $n$th cyclotomic polynomial $\Phi_n$, so the roots of $\Phi_n$ at least include all the $\zeta_n$.

But proving the other direction — that these are in fact all the roots of $\Phi_n$ — seems more difficult. In particular, we don't know things like:

  • The degree of the $n$th cyclotomic polynomial (or the extension it generates) is $\varphi(n)$
  • The $nth$ cyclotomic polynomial contains only roots of unity as roots
  • The $n$th cyclotomic extension is a Galois extension

Am I missing some information to prove this, or is Wikipedia the one lacking information?

Best Answer

To see that these are all the roots, I think it would suffice for you if you knew that the $\deg \Phi_n=\phi(n)$ as you have stated that you know that the $\phi(n)$ primitive $n$th roots of unity are clearly roots of the minimal polynomial of $\zeta_n$ (a primitive $n$th root of unity). One way to see this would be to claim that $x^n-1 = \prod_{d\mid n}\Phi_d(x)$. To see this we note that the roots of the polynomial on the left hand side are all $n$th roots of unity which is exactly all primitive $d$th roots of unity for all $d\mid n$, so we have that these two polynomials are the same. Now we use the fact that the degree map is additive, so $$n=\deg(x^n-1)=\deg(\prod_{d\mid n}\Phi_d(x))=\sum_{d\mid n}\deg\Phi_d(x)$$ Now you have observed that $\deg \Phi_d(x)\geq \phi(d)$, but as there is the well known formula that $\sum_{d\mid n}\phi(d)=n$, if for any $d$, we have that $\deg\Phi_d>\phi(d)$, then we would have that $$ n=\sum_{d\mid n}\phi(d)<\sum_{d\mid n}\deg\Phi_d(x) = n $$ which is a contradiction, so you can conclude that $\deg\Phi_n(x)=\phi(n)$ for all $n$. Hence, you may conclude that $\Phi_n(x)$ has exactly $n$ roots (those being the primitive $n$th roots of unity). I believe this should resolve your problem.

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