The A.L. Hook Assistant Professor of Mathematics published a paper in the most recent volume of the International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics. He also gave an invited talk at UNC-Greensboro on September 16, 2015.
The paper, titled “Groups of order 16 as Galois groups over the 2-adic numbers”, was joint work with Elon student John Johnson ’15 and UNCG doctoral students Jonathan Milstead and Brian Sinclair. The article provides techniques and new results for determining which root symmetry structures can occur for degree 16 polynomials whose coefficients are 2-adic numbers.
The invited talk contained an overview of Awtrey’s research program, suitable for an undergraduate audience of calculus students. Using as motivation the quest to solve polynomial equations “by radicals” (symbolically and not via approximations), Awtrey discussed the historical development, fundamental breakthroughs in the 16th and 19th centuries, modern advances, and the recent achievements of his undergraduate researchers in this context. The publication mentioned in the previous paragraph is one such contribution to this field of mathematics.