Let α,β,γ denote the zeros of the polynomial x3−nx−1, where n is an integer. The discriminant of the polynomial is defined as
Δ=Δ(1,α,α2)=(α−β)2(β−γ)2(γ−α)2
Prove that, if Δ is square-free, then 1,α,α2 is an integral basis for k=Q(α).
By verifying that
α(α−β)(α−γ)=2nα+3
and further that the field norm of the expression on the left is −Δ, or otherwise, show that Δ=4n3−27. Hence prove that, when n=1 and n=2, an integral basis for k is 1,α,α2.