Ivan Shishkin, Birch Grove

Solvability by radicals of a polynomial

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A polynomial equation P(x)=0,PK[X]P(x)=0, P\in \mathbb{K}[X] is solvable by radicals if all its solutions can be expressed only using additions, substractions, products, divisions and nthn^{th}-roots of elements from K\mathbb{K}.

For instance, x2+bx+c=0x^{2}+bx+c=0 is solvable by radicals for all b,cKb,c\in\mathbb{K} since the solutions take the form b±b24c2\displaystyle\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^{2}-4c}}{2}.

In fact, any polynomial equation of degree 33 (Cartan’s formulas) and 44 (Ferrari’s formulas) are solvable by radicals. However it does not exist any general formulas for the fifth degre, this is Abel’s theorem.

The theory that states if a polynomial is solvable by radicals or not is Galois theory.

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