A proof of van der Waerden's conjecture on random Galois groups of polynomials (Q2694964)

The paper under review proves a 1936 conjecture of van der Waerden. It is, slightly incredibly, an appetizer for the article [\textit{M. Bhargava}, ``Galois groups of random integer polynomials and van der Waerden's conjecture'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2111.06507}], which proves a number of generalizations and related theorems. Specifically, let \(E_n(H)\) denote the number of monic integer polynomials of degree \(n\) with coefficients bounded by \(H\) in absolute value, and whose Galois group is not \(S_n\). In 1936, van der Waerden conjectured that \(E_n(H)=O(H^{n-1})\). In this paper, the author proves this conjecture. The method of proof is in some sense elementary -- though it is by no means simple -- except for the proof of Lemma 6 which uses nontrivial methods from Fourier analysis. It is split into two parts. The first part of the proof derives an upper bound for \(E_n(H)\) of \(O(H^{n-1+\varepsilon})\), and the second part of the proof removes the \(\varepsilon\).