On the Galois group of generalized Laguerre polynomials (Q819859)

It is proved that if \(\alpha\) is a fixed rational number which is not a negative integer, for all but finitely many integers \(n\), the Galois group of the generalized Laguerre polynomial \(L_n^{(\alpha)}\) is \(A_n\) if its discriminant is a square and \(S_n\) otherwise. The proof uses the irreducibility over \(\mathbb{Q}\) of such Laguerre polynomial [cf. \textit{M. Filaseta} and \textit{T.-Y. Lam}, Acta Arith. 105, No. 2, 177--182 (2002; Zbl 1010.12001)] and a criterion for irreducible polynomials to have large Galois groups using Newton polygons.