Hopf-Galois structures on a Galois \(S_n\)-extension (Q2419486)

A finite Galois extension \(L\supseteq K\) can be a Hopf-Galois extension for other finite-dimensional \(K\)-Hopf algebras than just the group algebra \(K[G]\) of the Galois group \(G\) of the field extension. In a groundbreaking paper [J. Algebra 106, 239--258 (1987; Zbl 0615.12026)] \textit{C. Greither} and \textit{B. Pareigis} established a bijection between the Hopf-Galois structures on \(L\supseteq K\) and the set \(\mathcal{E}(G)\) of those regular subgroups of the symmetric group of \(G\) which are normalized by the image of the left regular representation of \(G\). Moreover, the set \(\mathcal{E}(G)\) is the disjoint union of the subsets \(\mathcal{E}(G,N)\) consisting of the regular subgroups in \(\mathcal{E}(G)\) that are isomorphic to \(N\) and where \(N\) runs over the isomorphism classes of all groups having the same order as \(G\). \textit{N. P. Byott} [Commun. Algebra 24, No. 10, 3217--3228 (1996; Zbl 0878.12001)] showed that the cardinality of \(\mathcal{E}(G,N)\) essentially can be computed from the number of those regular subgroups of the holomorph of \(N\) that are isomorphic to \(G\). The goal of the paper under review is to enumerate the Hopf-Galois structures for a Galois extension \(L\supseteq K\) with the symmetric group \(S_n\) on \(n\) letters as a Galois group by enumerating the set \(\mathcal{E}(S_n)\). For \(n=1\) and \(n=2\) there is only the usual Hopf-Galois structure \(K[S_n]\), but for \(n=3\) there are already \(5\) Hopf-Galois structures. The latter is a special case of a result of \textit{N. P. Byott} [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 188, No. 1--3, 45--57 (2004; Zbl 1047.16022)]. The cases \(n=4\), where \(S_n\) is still solvable, and \(n=6\), where \(S_n\) has a non-trivial outer automorphism, are settled by using MAGMA. It should also be noted that several intermediate steps were previously obtained in the paper [J. Algebra 218, No. 1, 81--92 (1999; Zbl 0988.12003)] of \textit{S. Carnahan} and \textit{L. N. Childs} as well as in the author's paper [J. Pure Appl. Algebra 223, No. 7, 2804--2821 (2019; Zbl 1472.12001)]. (Remark of the reviewer: As \(\#\mathcal{E}(S_6,\mathrm{PGL}(2,9))=0\), the condition for \(N\) in Theorem 1.3 should not contain the group \(\mathrm{PGL}(2,9)\).)