Galois groups of second and third order linear differential equations (Q1332656)

The authors discuss the first problem of Galois theory of differential equations. Let \(F\) be an ordinary (for simplicity) differential field and \(L(y) =0\) be an ordinary linear differential equation over \(F\). How can one calculate the Galois group of \(L\) over \(F\)? The authors suppose a new approach to the problem. They reduce it to the problem of finding solutions of linear differential equations in \(F\) and to the factorization problem of such equations over \(F\). These allow them to give simple necessary and sufficient conditions for a second order linear differential equation to have Liouvillian solutions and for a third order linear differential equation to have Liouvillian solutions or to be solvable in terms of second order equations.