An introduction to probabilistic Galois theoryMPIM

by David Hokken (MPIM)

Wednesday Nov 18, 2026, 2:30 PM → 3:00 PM Europe/Berlin

MPIM, Vivatsgasse, 7 - Lecture Hall (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics)

Number theory lunch seminar

Two fundamental problems in Galois theory are the inverse Galois problem — can any finite group G be realised as the Galois group of some polynomial over Q? — and the direct Galois problem — given a polynomial, how does one compute its Galois group? Probabilistic Galois theory seeks to gain insights to both the inverse and direct problems by studying the Galois theory of random polynomials. The goal of this talk is to give an introduction to this topic.