Prove that the $x^8+x^4+x^3+x+1$ is irreducible over $\mathbb{Z}_2[x]$ I am new to this field. I am doing some cryptography course and have encountered $\text{GF}(2^8)$ in the famous AES algorithm. Although I do not have a strong relevant math background with this stuff(ring/field), I am really interested in it. My textbook has a question which says to prove that:

$$x^8+x^4+x^3+x+1$$ is irreducible over $\mathbb{Z}_2[x]$.
I am stuck at this point where I don't have much intuition about proving irreducibility over the whole $\mathbb{Z}_2[x]$. 
Any help will be much appreciated!
Definition: A non-constant polynomial is said to be irreducible if it is cannot be factored into a product of two non-constant polynomials. In other words; if $p(x) = q(x)t(x)$ and it is irreducible then either $q(x)$ or $t(x)$ is a constant polynomial.
One way to prove that is $p(x) = x^8+x^4+x^3+x+1$ is irreducible over $\operatorname{GF}(2)[x]$ is checking the divisibility by the lower degree irreducible polynomials. First degree 1, then degree 2, then degree 3, and degree 4 will be enough to determine since a degree 8 can be factored into two polynomials with possible degrees as $1\cdot 7,2\cdot 6, 3\cdot 5$, and $4 \cdot 4$.
Below all the arithmetic is performed on $\operatorname{GF}(2)[x]$

degree polynomials are $x$ and $x+1$. We can check the divisibility by setting $p(0) \stackrel{?}{=} 0$ or $p(1) \stackrel{?}{=} 0$. $p(0) = 1 \neq 0$ and also $p(1) = 1 \neq 0$. Therefore degree one polynomials doesn't divide $p(x)$. This is by the factor theorem and here a nice proof in Math.SE.

degree polynomials, where we have four polynomials;


\begin{align}
 &amp; x^2+x+1\\
 &amp; x^2+x \\
 &amp; x^2+1\\
 &amp; x^2\\
 \end{align}
Let see why $x^2+1$ is not irreducible;
\begin{align}
(x+1)\,(x+1)&amp;=x\,(x+1)+1\,(x+1)&amp;&amp;\text{by distributivity}\\
  &amp;=x^2+1\,x+1\,x+1&amp;&amp;\text{.}\\
  &amp;=x^2+(1+1)\,x+1&amp;&amp;\text{.}\\
  &amp;=x^2+(0)\,x+1&amp;&amp;\text{since the coefficients are in }\operatorname{GF}(2)\\&amp;=x^2+1
\end{align}
with a quick check that only $x^2+x+1$ is irreducible. To see that $p(x)$ is not divisible by $x^2+x+1$ perform division and look for the remainder. One can use this Sage script
R = PolynomialRing(GF(2),'x')
x = R.gen()
p = x^8+x^4+x^3+x+1
q = x^2 + x + 1
p.quo_rem(q)

the output is $(quo = x^6 + x^5 + x^3, rem = x + 1)$, . i.e cannot divide.

degree irreducible polynomials

\begin{align}
 &amp; x^3 + x + 1 \\
 &amp; x^3 + x^2 + 1
 \end{align}

degree irreducible polynomials

\begin{align}
 &amp; x^4 + x + 1 \\
 &amp; x^4 + x^3 + 1\\
 &amp; x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1
 \end{align}
These polynomials are generated with SageMath
degree=4
R = GF(2)['x']
for p in R.polynomials(degree):
     if p.is_irreducible():
         print(p)

To test all the division use the below
R = PolynomialRing(GF(2),'x')
x = R.gen()
p = x^8+x^4+x^3+x+1
lst = [ x^2 + x + 1,  x^3 + x + 1,  x^3 + x^2 + 1,  x^4 + x + 1 , x^4 + x^3 + 1, x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1]

for t in lst:
    print(p.quo_rem(t))

The output is
(x^6 + x^5 + x^3, x + 1)
(x^5 + x^3 + x^2 + 1, x^2)
(x^5 + x^4 + x^3, x + 1)
(x^4 + x, x^3 + x^2 + 1)
(x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + 1, x^3 + x^2)
(x^4 + x^3 + 1, x^3 + x^2)

Therefore $p(x) = x^8+x^4+x^3+x+1$ is irreducible over $\operatorname{GF}(2)[x]$

Note 1: low degree irreducible binary polynomials are important in Cryptography since they reduce the required arithmetic. Gadiel Seroussi, in 1998, made a huge list in Table of Low-Weight Binary Irreducible Polynomials. The list contains binary irreducible polynomials up to 10000 degrees.
Note 2:  A014580 from
The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences contains a list of binary polynomials, encoded in binary, or evaluated when $x=2$. The $p(2)$ is 283.
2, 3, 7, 11, 13, 19, 25, 31, 37, 41, 47, 55, 59, 61, 67, 73, 87, 91, 97, 103, 109, 115, 117, 131, 137, 143, 145, 157, 167, 171, 185, 191, 193, 203, 211, 213, 229, 239, 241, 247, 253, 283, 285, 299, 301, 313, 319, 333, 351, 355, 357, 361, 369, 375,...
The bolds irreducibles are listed in this answer.
Note 3:  A001037 keeps the number of degree-n irreducible polynomials over $\operatorname{GF}(2)$. There are 18 in degree 8 and $p(x)$ among the lowest possible weight.
degree 1  2  3  4  5  6  7   8
count  1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 6, 9, 18

and this can be counted by $$L_q(n) = \frac{1}{2} \sum_{d|n} \mu (\frac{n}{d})q^d$$