Irreducibility of the characteristic polynomials of random tridiagonal matrices (Q6908102)

Let \(V_1, V_2, V_3, \dots\) be independent, identically distributed, non-constant integer-valued random variables such that \({\mathbb P}(|V_1| \geq k) \leq B (\log k)^{-b}\) for \(k \geq 3\) and some \(B, b > 0\). Let \(P_n(\lambda)\) be the characteristic polynomial of the tridiagonal matrix with \(V_1,\dots,V_n\) on the main diagonal and \(1\)'s in two other diagonals. The extended Riemann Hypothesis for \(Q \in {\mathbb Z}[\lambda]\) is that all the nontrivial zeros of the Dedekind zeta functions of the number fields \({\mathbb Q}(a)\), where \(a\) is a root of \(Q\), lie on the critical line. Assuming the extended Riemann Hypothesis for all the characteristic polynomials of the matrices as above with \(V_j \in {\mathbb Z}\), the authors show that there exist \(C, c > 0\) such that the following holds with probability at least \(1-C \exp(-cn)\): the polynomial \(P_n\) is irreducible over \(\mathbb Q\), and, moreover, the Galois group \(\mathrm{Gal}(P_n/{\mathbb Q})\) is either the full symmetric group \(S_n\) or the alternating group \(A_n\).