Computation of Galois groups of rational polynomials

Computational Galois theory, in particular the problem of computing the Galois group of a given polynomial is a very old problem. Currently, the best algorithmic solution is Stauduhar's method. Computationally, one of the key challenges in the application of Stauduhar's method is to find, for a given pair of groups H<G a G-relative H-invariant, that is a multivariate polynomial F that is H-invariant, but not G-invariant. While generic, theoretical methods are known to find such F, in general they yield impractical answers. We give a general method for computing invariants of large degree which improves on previous known methods, as well as various special invariants that are derived from the structure of the groups. We then apply our new invariants to the task of computing the Galois groups of polynomials over the rational numbers, resulting in the first practical degree independent algorithm.Comment: Improved version and new titl

P versus NP and geometry

I describe three geometric approaches to resolving variants of P v. NP, present several results that illustrate the role of group actions in complexity theory, and make a first step towards completely geometric definitions of complexity classes.Comment: 20 pages, to appear in special issue of J. Symbolic. Comp. dedicated to MEGA 200