Galois groups over rational function fields and explicit Hilbert irreducibility

Let $P(T,X)$ be an irreducible polynomial in two variables with rational coefficients. It follows from Hilbert's Irreducibility Theorem that for most rational numbers $t$ the specialized polynomial $P(t,X)$ is irreducible and has the same Galois group as $P$. We discuss here a method for obtaining an explicit description of the set of exceptional numbers $t$, i.e., those for which $P(t,X)$ is either reducible or has a different Galois group than $P$. To illustrate the method ...

In this paper we obtain new quantitative forms of Hilbert's Irreducibility Theorem. In particular, we show that if $f(X, T_1, \ldots, T_s)$ is an irreducible polynomial with integer coefficients, having Galois group $G$ over the function field $\mathbb{Q}(T_1, \ldots, T_s)$, and $K$ is any subgroup of $G$, then there are at most $O_{f, \varepsilon}(H^{s-1+|G/K|^{-1}+\varepsilon})$ specialisations $\mathbf{t} \in \mathbb{Z}^s$ with $|\mathbf{t}| \le H$ such that the resulting ...

In this paper we discuss applications of our earlier work in studying certain Galois groups and splitting fields of rational functions in $\mathbb Q\left(X_0(N)\right)$ using Hilbert's irreducibility theorem and modular forms. We also consider computational aspect of the problem using MAGMA and SAGE.

Let f(t,X) be an irreducible polynomial over the field of rational functions k(t), where k is a number field. Let O be the ring of integers of k. Hilbert's irreducibility theorem gives infinitely many integral specializations of t to values a in O such that f(a,X) is still irreducible. In this paper we study the set Red(O) of those a in O with f(a,X) reducible. We show that Red(O) is a finite set under rather weak assumptions. In particular, several results of K. Langmann, ob...

Hilbert's irreducibility theorem plays an important role in inverse Galois theory. In this article we introduce Hilbertian fields and present a clear detailed proof of Hilbert's irreducibility theorem in the context of these fields.

Computational Galois theory, in particular the problem of computing the Galois group of a given polynomial is a very old problem. Currently, the best algorithmic solution is Stauduhar's method. Computationally, one of the key challenges in the application of Stauduhar's method is to find, for a given pair of groups H<G a G-relative H-invariant, that is a multivariate polynomial F that is H-invariant, but not G-invariant. While generic, theoretical methods are known to find su...

We prove an effective form of Hilbert's irreducibility theorem for polynomials over a global field $K$. More precisely, we give effective bounds for the number of specializations $t\in \mathcal{O}_K$ that do not preserve the irreducibility or the Galois group of a given irreducible polynomial $F(T,Y)\in K[T,Y]$. The bounds are explicit in the height and degree of the polynomial $F(T,Y)$, and are optimal in terms of the size of the parameter $t\in \mathcal{O}_K$. Our proofs de...

The paper has three main applications. The first one is this Hilbert-Grunwald statement. If $f:X\rightarrow \Pp^1$ is a degree $n$ $\Qq$-cover with monodromy group $S_n$ over $\bar\Qq$, and finitely many suitably big primes $p$ are given with partitions $\{d_{p,1},..., d_{p,s_p}\}$ of $n$, there exist infinitely many specializations of $f$ at points $t_0\in \Qq$ that are degree $n$ field extensions with residue degrees $d_{p,1},..., d_{p,s_p}$ at each prescribed prime $p$. Th...

Given an irreducible bivariate polynomial $f(t,x)\in \mathbb{Q}[t,x]$, what groups $H$ appear as the Galois group of $f(t_0,x)$ for infinitely many $t_0\in \mathbb{Q}$? How often does a group $H$ as above appear as the Galois group of $f(t_0,x)$, $t_0\in \mathbb{Q}$? We give an answer for $f$ of large $x$-degree with alternating or symmetric Galois group over $\mathbb{Q}(t)$. This is done by determining the low genus subcovers of coverings $\tilde{X}\rightarrow \mathbb{P}^1_{...

Let G=Aut_K (K(x)) be the Galois group of the transcendental degree one pure field extension K(x)/K. In this paper we describe polynomial time algorithms for computing the field Fix(H) fixed by a subgroup H < G and for computing the fixing group G_f of a rational function f in K(x).