[Math] Characteristic and primitive roots of unity

abstract-algebrafinite-fieldsgalois-theory

Let $F$ be a finite field.

If the characteristic of $F$ doesn’t divide $n$, then $F$ contains a primitive $n^{th}$ root of unity.

I believe the converse is true, too, but I can’t prove either direction?

I know that $F^{*}$ is cyclic and of order $p^n -1$, where $p$ is the characteristic of $F$ and $n >0$. So it contains a generator, $\alpha$ with $\alpha^{p^n -1} = 1$.

But how does this relate to the characteristic not dividing $n$?

Best Answer

fresh mans dream: for an integral domain of characteristic $p$ we have $(x-y)^p=x^p-y^p$, in particular $x^{p}-1$ has only $x-1$ as linear factors, which means that there is no $p$-root of unity except for $1$.

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