An application of Maeda's conjecture to the inverse Galois problem (Q2510103)

Maeda's conjecture [\textit{H. Hida} and \textit{Y. Maeda}, in: Olga Taussky-Todd: In memoriam. Cambridge, MA: International Press. Pac. J. Math., Spec. Issue, 189--217 (1998; Zbl 0942.11026)] states that the Hecke action on the \(\mathbb{Q}\)-vector space underlying the space \(S_{k}(1)\) of cusp forms of weight \(k\) and level 1 is irreducible. This conjecture has several forms, the one used in this paper is the following: wherever \(f \in S_{k}(1)\) is a normalized eigenform, the number field \(\mathbb{Q}_{f}=\mathbb{Q}\big(a_{n}(f)\big|n\in\mathbb{N}\big)\) associated to \(f\) has degree \(d_{k}=\dim S_{k}(1)\) over \(\mathbb{Q}\), and the Galois group of its normal closure over \(\mathbb{Q}\) is the full symmetric group \(S_{d_{k}}\). The inverse Galois problem (over \(\mathbb{Q}\)) looks for constructing number fields having prescribed Galois groups over \(\mathbb{Q}\), often with some restrictions on the ramification of primes in these number fields. Given a prime \(p\) and a number \(d\in\mathbb{N}\), we write \(\mathrm{PXL}_{2}(\mathbb{F}_{p^{d}})\) for \(\mathrm{PSL}_{2}(\mathbb{F}_{p^{d}})\) in case \(d\) is even and \(\mathrm{PGL}_{2}(\mathbb{F}_{p^{d}})\) if \(d\) is odd. The main result of this paper asserts that if this form of Maeda's conjecture holds then for most primes \(p\) (a subset of density 1), and for all natural numbers \(d\), there exists a number field, ramified only over \(p\), which is Galois over \(\mathbb{Q}\) with Galois group \(\mathrm{PXL}_{2}(\mathbb{F}_{p^{d}})\). Most stages of the proof are rather elementary. First, the well-known connection between residue degrees of primes over \(p\) (which later give the \(\mathbb{F}_{p^{d}}\) in the Galois group) and lengths of cycles in the permutations representing the corresponding Frobenius elements is established. The author then evaluates the number of permutations involving cycles of length \(d\) in symmetric groups \(S_{n}\), and using a simple lemma from basic infinitesimal calculus deduces that the relative parts in products of symmetric groups with increasing orders having a cycle of length \(d\), which in at least one coordinate tend to 1. The Chebotarev density theorem translates the latter result to the existence of primes having absolute residue degree \(d\). Only at the final stage come the heavier tools: Maeda's conjecture combines with results of \textit{K. A. Ribet} about Galois representations arising from eigenforms [Glasg. Math. J. 27, 185--194 (1985; Zbl 0596.10027)] to prove the desired result.