On Elkies' method for bounding the transitivity degree of Galois groups (Q2048150)

The main result establishes that previously considered polynomials do indeed generate a regular Galois extension with Galois group the sporadic 2-transitive Conway group \(Co_3\). More precisely, the authors specify a number field \(K\) of degree 12 over the rationals by an explicitly given polynomial. They consider two polynomials of degree 276 in \(K[x]\) given in [\textit{H. Monien}, ``The sporadic group \(Co_3\), Hauptmodul and Belyi map'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1802.06923}]. The main theorem states that these two polynomials define a regular Galois extension of \(K(t)\) with Galois group the sporadic 2-transitive Conway group \(Co_3\). As the main tool of the proof, they use a method invented by \textit{N. D. Elkies} [Open Book Ser. 1, 359--367 (2013; Zbl 1334.12006)]. It builds on classical ideas relating Galois groups of extensions of global fields to the Galois groups of the extension reduced modulo suitable primes. The final step in excluding all but one possibility for the Galois group of a polynomial often involves questions of transitivity of the group. For bounding the transitivity degree of a Galois group, this method establishes a cover of the projective line with a given ramification structure. Reduction modulo primes leads to curves over finite fields which have to satisfy the Hasse-Weil bound on the number of points they contain. If a contradiction to this bound can be demonstrated by explicit counting, the transitivity of the Galois group is disproved. The proof of the main result also relies on the classification of finite 2-transitive groups, on a theorem by Beckman [\textit{G. Malle} and \textit{B. H. Matzat}, Inverse Galois theory. 2nd edition. Berlin: Springer (2018; Zbl 1406.12001), Proposition 10.9] and on a heavy-duty computation for counting points over a finite field of size a ten-digit decimal number. The authors proceed to use this method to give alternative proofs of similar results on two other groups as Galois groups of polynomials.