Reducible fibers of polynomial maps (Q6623573)

Given a degree \(n\) rational map \(f : X \rightarrow \mathbb{P}^1_{\mathbb{Q}}\) (between smooth projective curves), Hilbert's irreducibility theorem asserts the existence of infinitely many \(a\in \mathbb{Q}\) for which the fiber \(f^{-1}(a)\subseteq \mathbb{C}\) is irreducible over \(\mathbb{Q}\), that is, its elements are of degree \(n\) over \(\mathbb{Q}\). Thus for a degree \(n\) polynomial \(f\in \mathbb{Q}[x]\), the elements in the fiber \(f^{-1}(a)\subseteq \mathbb{C}\) are of degree \(n\) over \(\mathbb{Q}\) for most values \(a\in \mathbb{Q}\). Determining the set of exceptional \(a\)'s without this property is a long standing open problem that is closely related to the Davenport-Lewis-Schinzel problem (1959) on reducibility of variable separated polynomials. As opposed to a previous work that mostly concerns indecomposable \(f\), the authors answer both problems for decomposable \(f = f_1\circ \cdots \circ f_r\), as long as the indecomposable factors \(f_i\in \mathbb{Q}[x]\) are of degree \(\geq 5\) and are nonsolvable, i.~e. not \(x^n\) or a Chebyshev polynomial composed with linear polynomials.