On irreducible divisors of iterated polynomials (Q2256067)

Summary: \textit{D. Gómez-Pérez} et al. [Rev. Mat. Iberoam. 30, No. 2, 523--535 (2014; Zbl 1319.11089)] have recently shown that for almost all polynomials \(f \in \mathbb F_q[X]\) over the finite field of \(q\) elements, where \(q\) is an odd prime power, their iterates eventually become reducible polynomials over \(\mathbb F_q\). Here we combine their method with some new ideas to derive finer results about the arithmetic structure of iterates of \(f\). In particular, we prove that the \(n\)th iterate of \(f\) has a square-free divisor of degree of order at least \(n^{1+o(1)}\) as \(n\to \infty\) (uniformly in \(q\)).