Generic Polynomials

Arne Ledet

In Galois theory, the basic idea is to start with a polynomial and obtain a group (the Galois group). The group then gives information about the (roots of the) polynomial. Inverse Galois theory, on the other hand, starts with a group and tries to find polynomials with that group as Galois group. Better yet, it finds all polynomials with that group as Galois group, or at least "sufficiently many". I will introduce the concept of a generic polynomial, which is a way of finding "sufficiently many" polynomials in this way, and give some examples and methods.