On rigid equations for alternating groups and their Hasse-Witt invariants (Q912916)

This paper is concerned with the question which finite groups \(G\) occur as Galois groups of regular extensions of \(\mathbb Q(T)\) and gives partial results in this direction. When the center \(Z(G)\) of \(G\) is trivial the concept of rigidity can be used, see, e.g., \textit{J. G. Thompson} [J. Algebra 89, 437--499 (1984; Zbl 0552.12004)]. When \(Z(G)\neq 1\) and \(G\) does not split over \(Z(G)\) one can ask whether an extension field with Galois group \(G/Z(G)\) can be embedded into one with Galois group \(G\), and for this a technique of Serre, which requires an explicit polynomial equation for the \(G/Z(G)\)-extension, can often be applied. One main purpose of the paper is to determine in special cases whether the embedding problem is solvable or not directly from properties of conjugacy classes of \(G/Z(G)\), i.e., without knowing explicit equations for \(G/Z(G)\).