We prove new cases of the Inverse Galois Problem by considering the residual Galois representations arising from a fixed newform. Specific choices of weight $3$ newforms will show that there are Galois extensions of ${\mathbb Q}$ with Galois group $\operatorname {PSL}_2({\mathbb F}_p)$ for all primes p and $\operatorname {PSL}_2({\mathbb F}_{p^3})$ for all odd primes $p \equiv \pm 2, \pm 3, \pm 4, \pm 6 \ \pmod {13}$ .

Let $F_{2^n}$ be the Frobenius group of degree $2^n$ and of order $2^n ( 2^n-1)$ with $n \ge 4$ . We show that if $K/\mathbb {Q} $ is a Galois extension whose Galois group is isomorphic to $F_{2^n}$ , then there are $\dfrac {2^{n-1} +(-1)^n }{3}$ intermediate fields of $K/\mathbb {Q} $ of degree $4 (2^n-1)$ such that they are not conjugate over $\mathbb {Q}$ but arithmetically equivalent over $\mathbb {Q}$ . We also give an explicit method to construct these arithmetically equivalent fields.

Let $U$ be an affine smooth curve defined over an algebraically closed field of positive characteristic. The Abhyankar conjecture (proved by Raynaud and Harbater in 1994) describes the set of finite quotients of Grothendieck’s étale fundamental group $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}_{1}^{\acute{\text{e}}\text{t}}(U)$. In this paper, we consider a purely inseparable analogue of this problem, formulated in terms of Nori’s profinite fundamental group scheme $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70B}^{N}(U)$, and give a partial answer to it.

The minimal ramification problem may be considered as a quantitative version of the inverse Galois problem. For a nontrivial finite group $G$, let $m(G)$ be the minimal integer $m$ for which there exists a $G$-Galois extension $N/\mathbb{Q}$ that is ramified at exactly $m$ primes (including the infinite one). So, the problem is to compute or to bound $m(G)$.

In this paper, we bound the ramification of extensions $N/\mathbb{Q}$ obtained as a specialization of a branched covering $\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}:C\rightarrow \mathbb{P}_{\mathbb{Q}}^{1}$. This leads to novel upper bounds on $m(G)$, for finite groups $G$ that are realizable as the Galois group of a branched covering. Some instances of our general results are:

$$\begin{eqnarray}1\leqslant m(S_{k})\leqslant 4\quad \text{and}\quad n\leqslant m(S_{k}^{n})\leqslant n+4,\end{eqnarray}$$

$n,k>0$

$S_{k}$

$k$

$S_{k}^{n}$

$n$

$S_{k}$

$m(G^{n})$

$n\rightarrow \infty$

$G$

Our methods are based on sieve theory results, in particular on the Green–Tao–Ziegler theorem on prime values of linear forms in two variables, on the theory of specialization in arithmetic geometry, and on finite group theory.

We prove the existence of certain rationally rigid triples in ${E}_{8}(p)$ for good primes $p$ (i.e. $p>5$) thereby showing that these groups occur as Galois groups over the field of rational numbers. We show that these triples arise from rigid triples in the algebraic group and prove that they generate an interesting subgroup in characteristic zero. As a byproduct of the proof, we derive a remarkable symmetry between the character table of a finite reductive group and that of its dual group. We also give a short list of possible overgroups of regular unipotent elements in simple exceptional groups.