Galois group of splitting field of $x^5-4x+2$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ is transitive

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I have that $K$ is the splitting field of $x^5-4x+2$ over $\mathbb{Q}$, and I'd like to prove that $\text{Gal}(K/\mathbb{Q})\leq S_5$ is transitive, but I am having trouble getting off the ground.

All I have so far is that by the Eisenstein criterion with $p = 2$, $x^5-4x+2$ is irreducible over $\mathbb{Q}$, but I don't know where to go from here.

Best Answer

The important fact you need to use is the following:

Theorem Let $\sigma : L \to F$ be a morphism of fields and fix algebraic closures of $\overline{L}$ and $\overline{F}$ of $L$ and $F$, respectively. Let $a \in \overline{L}$ with minimal polynomial $p \in L[x]$. Let $S = \{f : L(a) \to \overline{F} \mid f|_L = \sigma\}$ and let $T$ be the set of roots of $\sigma(p) \in F[x]$ in $M$. Then the map $$f \mapsto f(a) : S \to T$$ is a bijection.

You can find an exposition of this and related results in Dr. Romyar Sharifi's excellent abstract algebra notes (roughly around section 6.7).

In your case, you want to know that there is an automorphism of $K$ over $\mathbb{Q}$ which sends any given root of your polynomial to another. In other words, you want to extend the inclusion $\mathbb{Q} \to K$ to a morphism $K \to K$ (which will neccesarily be an automorphism since $K / \mathbb{Q}$ is finite) such that this extension maps one root to another. This is possible by the above theorem! First, choose a root $r_1$ which we want to send to a root $r_2$. The theorem says there is a unique extension of the inclusion $\mathbb{Q} \to K$ to a map $\mathbb{Q}(r_1) \to K$ such that $r_1 \mapsto r_2$. If $\mathbb{Q}(r_1) = K$ then we're done, otherwise choose some root $r_3 \in K \setminus \mathbb{Q}(r_1)$ and extend to $\mathbb{Q}(r_1)(r_3) = \mathbb{Q}(r_1, r_3) \to K$ by sending $r_3 \mapsto r_3$. Eventually we will adjoin enough roots to get our desired extension $K \to K$.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions about the above.