The regular inverse Galois problem over non-large fields.

By a celebrated theorem of Harbater and Pop, the regular inverse Galois problem is solvable over any field containing a large field. Using this and the Mordell conjecture for function fields, we construct the first example of a field K over which the regular inverse Galois problem can be shown to be solvable, but such that K does not contain a large field. The paper is complemented by model-theoretic observations on the diophantine nature of the regular inverse Galois problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]