Lagrange resolvents (Q5906770)

The Galois group \(\Gamma\) of a polynomial \(f\in K[x]\) acts faithfully on the roots of \(f\), an arrangement of the roots gives an embedding of \(\Gamma\) in \(S_n\). For a polynomial \(\Psi\in K[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) and \(H=\text{ Stab}_{S_n}(\Psi)\) (action by permuting the indeterminates) the authors define the Lagrange resolvent \({\mathcal L}_{\Psi,f}(X)\in K[X]\) as a polynomial corresponding to the action of \(\Gamma\) on the cosets of \(H\) and show that if \({\mathcal L}\) is separable its factor degrees equal the number of orbits of \(\Gamma\) on the cosets of \(H\) (including multiplicities). (This is essentially Proposition 1 from: \textit{L.~Soicher} and \textit{J.~McKay} [J. Number Theory 20, 273-281 (1985; Zbl 0579.12006)] in a very formalized setting.) Following \textit{R.~Stauduhar} [Math. Comput. 27, 981-996 (1973; Zbl 0282.12004)] this is generalized to \textit{relative resolvents}, corresponding to the action of \(\Gamma\) on cosets of \(H\) in \(L\geq \Gamma\). As \(\Gamma\) has a fixed point on the cosets of \(H\) if and only if \(\Gamma\leq H^x\) for \(x\in S_n\) the orbit lengths on cosets for representatives \(H\) of all subgroups (the authors call this the \textit{partition matrix}) determine \(\Gamma\) up to conjugacy. This yields to a procedure to determine \(\Gamma\) which the authors call ``chasing resolvents'' and for which they give an example in degree 4 and which they have computed up to degree 11 [\textit{A.~Valibouze}, Applied algebra, algebraic algorithms and error-correcting codes. 11th international symposium, Lect. Notes Comput. Sci. 946, 456-468 (1995; Zbl 0887.12007)]. The last section shows that the factorization of two specific resolvents suffices to determine whether \(G\) is metacyclic. (Reviewers remark: The elaborate notation of this paper does not improve the legibility).