Writing representations over minimal fields

The chief aim of this paper is to describe a procedure which, given a d-dimensional absolutely irreducible matrix representation of a finite group over a finite field E, produces an equivalent representation such that all matrix entries lie in a subfield F of E which is as small as possible. The algorithm relies on a matrix version of Hilbert's Theorem 90, and is probabilistic with expected running time O(\E:F\d(3)) when \F\ is bounded. Using similar methods we then describe an algorithm which takes as input a prime number and a power-conjugate presentation for a finite soluble group, and as output produces a full set of absolutely irreducible representations of the group over fields whose characteristic is the specified prime, each representation being written over its minimal field.