Symmetric Galois groups under specialization (Q2142709)

Consider a polynomial \(f(t,x) \in \mathbb{Q}(t)[x]\) with coefficients depending on \(t\), and let \(G\) be the Galois group of the polynomial. For all but finitely many specializations \(t \mapsto t_0 \in \mathbb{Q}\), the Galois group \(\text{Gal}(f(t_0,x), \mathbb{Q})\) is a subgroup of \(G\); and for infinitely many \(t_0\), that group is just \(G\). The question in this article is what proper subgroups of \(G\) are \(\text{Gal}(f(t_0,x), \mathbb{Q})\) for infinitely many \(t_0 \in \mathbb{Q}\). The answer to that question is given in the main Theorem 1.1, according to which, if \(G\) is \(A_n\) or \(S_n\) for \(n\) greater than a certain constant \(N_1\), and \(\text{Gal}(f(t_0,x), \mathbb{Q}) \approx H\) for infinitely many \(t_0 \in \mathbb{Q}\), then either i) \(H = A_n\) or \(S_n\), or ii) \(H = A_{n-1}\) or \(S_{n-1}\), or iii) \(A_{n-2} \lneq H \lneq S_{n-2} \times S_2\). The way to prove Theorem 1.1 is to classify low genus covers with monodromy \(A_n\) or \(S_n\). This is made in Theorem 1.2 by an analysis of the transitivity of the action of \(H\) on unordered sets, and Theorem 1.1 follows using Faltings' theorem.