Techniques for the computation of Galois groups (Q4247783)

This article is a survey of the techniques which can be used to determine the Galois group \(G\) of an irreducible polynomial \(f\in Q[x]\). These algorithms employ the fact that \(G\) has a faithful transitive action on the roots of \(n\), and that a \(G\)-invariant polynomial \(r\in Q[x_1,\ldots,x_n]\) when specialized at the roots of \(f\) must yield a \(G\)-invariant (i.e. rational) value and (essentially) vice versa. \(G\) then is determined from its invariants, using an explicit list of all transitive groups of a given degree [\textit{J. H. Conway, A. Hulpke} and \textit{J. McKay}, LMS J. Comput. Math. 1, 1-8 (1998; Zbl 0920.20001)]. The two main approaches are either to check a specific set of invariants [\textit{R. Stauduhar}, Math. Comput. 27, 981-996 (1973; Zbl 0282.12004)], respectively to use ``generic'' polynomials to search for invariants [\textit{L. Soicher} and \textit{J. McKay}, J. Number Theory 20, 273-281 (1985; Zbl 0579.12006)]. Implementations are available for degree up to 15, although certain groups are very hard to verify. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0903.00035].