The fundamental theorem of Galois theory states that for a finite Galois extension field of a field
, the subgroups of the Galois
group
correspond with the subfields
of
containing
. If the subfield
corresponds to the subgroup
,
then the extension field degree of
over
is the group order of
,
|
(1)
| |||
|
(2)
|
Suppose , then
and
correspond to subgroups
and
of
such that
is a subgroup of
. Also,
is a normal subgroup
of
iff
is a Galois extension
field. Since any subfield of a separable
extension, which the Galois extension field
must be, is also separable,
is Galois iff
is a normal extension
of
.
So normal extensions correspond to normal
subgroups. When
is normal, then
|
(3)
|
as the quotient group of the group action of on
.
For example, let and
, with intermediate subfields
,
and
.
Their corresponding subgroups are
,
and
. The only field
automorphisms of
(keeping
fixed) are the identity,
,
,
and
,
so these form the Galois group
(which is generated by
and
). In particular, the generators
and
of
are as follows:
maps
to
,
to
, and fixes
;
maps
to
,
to
and fixes
; and
maps
to
,
to
and fixes
.
For example, let be a primitive root
of unity of order 3 and consider the Galois
extension field
|
(4)
| |||
|
(5)
|
over ,
which has extension field degree six. That
is, it is a six-dimensional vector
space over the rationals.