Paper 3, Section II, I

Galois Theory
Part II, 2013

Let pp be a prime number and FF a field of characteristic pp. Let Frp:FF\operatorname{Fr}_{p}: F \rightarrow F be the Frobenius map defined by Frp(x)=xp\operatorname{Fr}_{p}(x)=x^{p} for all xFx \in F.

(i) Prove that Frp\operatorname{Fr}_{p} is a field automorphism when FF is a finite field.

(ii) Is the same true for an arbitrary algebraic extension FF of Fp\mathbb{F}_{p} ? Justify your answer.

(iii) Let F=Fp(X1,,Xn)F=\mathbb{F}_{p}\left(X_{1}, \ldots, X_{n}\right) be the rational function field in nn variables where n1n \geqslant 1 over Fp\mathbb{F}_{p}. Determine the image of Frp:FF\operatorname{Fr}_{p}: F \rightarrow F, and show that Frp\operatorname{Fr}_{p} makes FF into an extension of degree pnp^{n} over a subfield isomorphic to FF. Is it a separable extension?