Dear Forum, I am trying to understand the factorisation of polynomials in ALNUTH. Consider the following example:
*gap> pol := UnivariatePolynomial(Rationals,[6,0,-5,0,1]);x_1^4-5*x_1^2+6gap> L := SplittingField(pol);<algebraic extension over the Rationals of degree 4>gap> FactorsPolynomialAlgExt(L,pol); [ x_1+(-1/20*a^3+9/10*a), x_1+(-1/40*a^3+19/20*a), x_1+(1/40*a^3-19/20*a), x_1+(1/20*a^3-9/10*a) ]* How should we interpret the symbol 'a' here? In other words, is there is a way to realise the constant terms in these these symbolic expressions (involving a) in the factors as (plus or minus) Sqrt{2} and Sqrt{3}. Maybe it is too much to ask, but in general, can GAP display these real roots as a list of radicals (for example Sqrt{2}, Sqrt{3} etc.), as it does while displaying characters. Sincerely, Kashyap -- Kashyap Rajeevsarathy Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Bhopal, Indore By-pass Road, Bhauri, Bhopal - 462066, Madhya Pradesh, India. Phone: +91-755-669-2364 Website: https://home.iiserb.ac.in/~kashyap _______________________________________________ Forum mailing list Forum@mail.gap-system.org http://mail.gap-system.org/mailman/listinfo/forum