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Galois theory by calculator
Thomas W. Mattman, Robertson-Figaniak, Zoe Steele
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.18595 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.18595

Galois theory by calculator
We present an algorithm to determine the Galois group of an irreducible monic polynomial $f(x) \in \mathbb{Z}[x]$ of degree at most five. Following work of Conrad, Dummit, and Stauduhar this comes down to answering two questions: Is a given integer a square? and Does a given polynomial have an integral root? Since these are both easily addressed with a calculator, our algorithm amounts to Galois theory by calculator. For example, we have an implementation at Desmos.com. In an appendix we presen…