Squarefree values of polynomial discriminants. I (Q2138738)

The aim of the paper under review is to determine the density of monic integer polynomials \(f(x)=x^n+a_1x^{n-1}+\cdots +a_n\) of given degree \(n\) whose discriminant is squarefree. Then, it is natural to order these polynomials \(f\) by the height \[H(f)=\max_{1\leq i\leq n} \lbrace |a_i|^\frac{1}{i}\rbrace .\] Therefore, the density of polynomials \(f\) exists and is equal to \(\lambda_n>0\), where \(\lambda_n=\prod_{p}\lambda_n(p)\) and \[\lambda_n(p)=\begin{cases} 1 &\text{ if } n=1,\\ 1-\frac{1}{p^2} &\text{ if } n=2,\\ 1-\frac{3 p^{n-1}-p^{n-2}+(-1)^n (p-1)^2}{p^n(p+1)}&\text{ if } n\geq3, \end{cases}\] for prime numbers \(p\neq 2\) and \[\lambda_n(2)=\begin{cases} 1&\text{ if } n=1,\\ \frac{1}{2}&\text{ if } n\geq2. \end{cases}\] As a consequence, when the degree \(n\) tends to infinity, the probability that a random monic integer polynomial has squarefree discriminant tends to \[\lambda=\lim_{n\to \infty}\lambda_n=\frac{1}{2}\prod_{p\geq 3}\left(1-\frac{3p-1}{p^2(p+1)}\right)\approx30.7056 \%. \] In algebraic number theory, the above density result yields the following nice formulation: The density of polynomials \(f\) such that \(\mathbb{Z}[x]/(f(x))\) is the ring of integers in its fraction field is \[\prod_p (1-\frac{1}{p^2})=\zeta(2)^{-1}\approx 60.7927 \%.\]