Helmut Voelklein - Böcker

The legacy of Galois was the beginning of Galois theory as well as group theory. From this common origin, the development of group theory took its own course, which led to great advances in the latter half of the 20th cen­ tury. It was John Thompson who shaped finite group theory like no-one else, leading the way towards a major milestone of 20th century mathematics, the classification of finite simple groups. After the classification was announced around 1980, it was again J. Thomp­ son who led the way in exploring its implications for Galois theory. The first question is whether all simple groups occur as Galois groups over the rationals (and related fields), and secondly, how can this be used to show that all finite groups occur (the 'Inverse Problem of Galois Theory'). What are the implica­ tions for the stmcture and representations of the absolute Galois group of the rationals (and other fields)? Various other applications to algebra and number theory have been found, most prominently, to the theory of algebraic curves (e.g., the Guralnick-Thompson Conjecture on the Galois theory of covers of the Riemann sphere).

Galois theory is a central part of algebra, dealing with symmetries between solutions of algebraic equations in one variable. This is a collection of papers from the participants of a conference on Galois theory, and brings together articles from some of the world's leading experts in this field. Topics are centred around the Inverse Galois Problem, comprising the full range of methods and approaches in this area, making this an invaluable resource for all those whose research involves Galois theory.

The theme of this book are the interactions between group theory and algebra/geometry/number theory, showing ubiquity and power of the basic principle of Galois theory. The book presents recent developments in a major line of work about covers of the projective line (and other curves), their fields of definition and parameter spaces, and associated questions about arithmetic fundamental groups. This is intimately tied up with the Inverse Problem of Galois Theory, and uses methods of algebraic geometry, group theory and number theory.