\((2,3)\)-constructible numbers (Q5937636)

The paper deals with geometric constructions using a compass, a ruler and a conic instrument which is defined in the following way: for any 5 points in Euclidean plane such that there are no 3 distinct points lying in a straight line, the conic instrument draws the conic that contains the above mentioned 5 points. Starting with the history of compass and ruler geometric constructions on the Euclidean plane, the authors present a survey of concepts and results connecting these geometric constructions with Galois Theory, namely with the Galois 2-closure of a subfield of complex numbers. Then the authors proceed to define the concept of Galois \((2,3)\)-closure of a subfield \(K\) of complex numbers as a finite Galois extension \(L\) of \(K\) such that \(\text{Gal}(L/K)\) is a \((2,3)\)-group, i.e., a finite group of order \(2^n 3^m\), for some positive integers \(n\) and \(m\), stating and proving similar results about \((2,3)\)-closures as the ones for Galois 2-closures. Furthermore, they show that the set of constructible numbers from \(E\), with \(\{ 0, 1\} \subset E\), using compass, ruler and the conic instrument is \(cl(K[ 2, 3 ])\) where \(K\) is the symmetric subfield of complex numbers generated by \(E\). Then, proving a characterization of conics and a property of non-singular cubics, the authors show that the Galois \((2,3)\)-closure is stable for small orders. A characterization of \((2,3)\)-constructible regular polygons is given and the paper finishes by describing some efffective geometric constructions using compass, ruler and the conic instrument, namely of angle trisection, cubic roots and roots of polynomials of degree smaller than or equal to 3 and some regular polygons. It ends by describing the explicit construction of the Gauss periods for respectively 257 and 65537-regular polygons, including an explicit geometric construction of the former.