In mathematics, the nth cyclotomic polynomial, for any positive integer n, is the unique irreducible polynomial with integer coefficients that is a divisor of ${\displaystyle x^{n}-1}$ and is not a divisor of ${\displaystyle x^{k}-1}$ for any k < n. Its roots are all nth primitive roots of unity ${\displaystyle e^{2i\pi {\frac {k}{n}}}}$, where k runs over the positive integers not greater than n and coprime to n (and i is the imaginary unit). In other words, the nth cyclotomic polynomial is equal to

${\displaystyle \Phi _{n}(x)=\prod _{\stackrel {1\leq k\leq n}{\gcd(k,n)=1}}\left(x-e^{2i\pi {\frac {k}{n}}}\right).}$

It may also be defined as the monic polynomial with integer coefficients that is the minimal polynomial over the field of the rational numbers of any primitive nth-root of unity (${\displaystyle e^{2i\pi /n}}$ is an example of such a root).

An important relation linking cyclotomic polynomials and primitive roots of unity is

${\displaystyle \prod _{d\mid n}\Phi _{d}(x)=x^{n}-1,}$

showing that x is a root of ${\displaystyle x^{n}-1}$ if and only if it is a d th primitive root of unity for some d that divides n.