Not Separable , Purely Inseparable

field-theorygalois-theory

I can recall that an extension $E$ over $F$ is separable if the minimal polynomial of every element of $E$ over $F$ is a separable polynomial.

Further $$[E:F]_s=|\{f:E \to F^a: f \text{ is an } F \text{ embedding}\}$$

If $E$ over $F$ is separable then $[E:F]_s=[E:F]$.

On the other hand, $[E:F]_s=1$ then $E$ over $F$ is purely inseparable.

Now I am searching for examples of $E$ over $F$ such that $E$ is neither separable nor purely inseparable.

I thought of taking $K$ to be a field of $\operatorname{char}(K)=p$ and then consider $K(x^p,y^p) \subset K(x,y)$ and this is not separable for sure but its purely inseparable too. I am not sure but it seems every extension is either separable or purely inseparable.

Best Answer

$\newcommand{\Fp}{\mathbb{F}_p}$You could just do this in two steps:

$$\Fp(x^p) \subset \Fp(x) \subset \Fp(x^{1/2}),$$

where $p$ is any prime $\neq 2$.

Note that separable and purely inseparable extensions both share the "transitive" property, i.e., if you have extensions $$F \subset L \subset K,$$ then $F \subset K$ is (purely in)separable iff both $F \subset L$ and $L \subset K$ are so.

In the example above, the first extension is not separable, whereas the latter is not purely inseparable.

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