Odoni’s conjecture on arboreal Galois representations is false

Abstract

Suppose f ∈ K [ x ] f \in K[x] is a polynomial. The absolute Galois group of K K acts on the preimage tree T \mathrm {T} of 0 0 under f f . The resulting homomorphism ϕ f : Gal K → Aut ⁡ T \phi _f\colon \operatorname {Gal}_K \to \operatorname {Aut} \mathrm {T} is called the arboreal Galois representation. Odoni conjectured that for all Hilbertian fields K K there exists a polynomial f f for which ϕ f \phi _f is surjective. We show that this conjecture is false.