Integral polynomials with small discriminants and resultants (Q291767): Difference between revisions

In this well written paper, the authors obtain a lower bound on the number of integer polynomials of bounded height and fixed degree with discriminant below a certain threshold, as well as a lower bound on the number of pairs of integer polynomials of bounded height and fixed degree with resultant below a certain threshold. Concretely, let \({\mathcal P}_n(Q)\) denote the set of integer polynomials of degree \(n\) and height at most \(Q\). Furthermore, for \(v \in [0,n-1]\) and \(\gamma > 0\), let \[ {\mathcal D}_{n, \gamma}(Q,v) = \{P \in {\mathcal P}_n(Q) : 1 \leq | D(P) | \leq \gamma Q^{2n-2-2v}\}, \] and for \(w \in [0, n]\) and \(\rho >0\), let \[ {\mathcal R}_{n, \rho}(Q, w) = \{(P_1, P_2) \in {\mathcal P}(Q)^2 : 0< | R(P_1, P_2) \leq \rho Q^{2n - 2w} \}. \] Here, \(D(P)\) denotes the discriminant of \(P\) and \(R(P_1, P_2)\) denotes the resultant of \(P_1\) and \(P_2\). The authors show that for \(n \geq 2\), there is a \(\gamma> 0\) depending only on \(n\), such that for \(Q\) sufficiently large and \(v \in [0, n-1]\), \(\# {\mathcal D}_{n, \gamma}(Q,v) \gg Q^{n+1-(n+2)v/n}\), where the implied constant depends only on \(n\). Similarly, for the resultant it is shown that for \(n\) fixed, there is \(\rho> 0\) such that for \(Q\) sufficiently large, \(\# {\mathcal R}_{n, \rho}(Q, w) \gg Q^{2n+2-2w}\) for \(w \in [0, (n+1)/2]\) and \(\# {\mathcal R}_{n, \rho}(Q, w) \gg Q^{2n+2-2w-2(2w-n-1)/n}\) for \(w \in [(n+1)/2, n]\). For \(v \neq n-1\), we may choose \(\gamma = 1\) and for \(w \neq n\), we may choose \(\rho =1\). The results improve upon previous estimates and are conjectured to be optimal, at least up to an arbitrarily small additive constant in the exponents. This is shown to be the case for the estimate on \(\# {\mathcal D}_{n, \gamma}(Q,v)\) when \(n=2\). The proofs of the lower bounds involve a clever reduction of the counting estimates to a problem in linear optimisation. The upper bound on the discriminant case in the quadratic case is obtained by using a counting estimate of \textit{R. C. Vaughan} and \textit{S. Velani} [Invent. Math. 166, No. 1, 103--124 (2006; Zbl 1185.11047)].