Irreducible polynomials with coefficients in a complete discrete valuation field (Q1342377)

Let \(R\) be a complete discrete valuation domain with quotient field \(K\). The object of this paper is to give a criterion for a polynomial \(P\in K[ Y]\) in one variable to be irreducible. The author first shows that the problem reduces to the case that \(P\) is a monic polynomial. To state the main result let \(v\) be the normalized valuation with valuation ring \(R\), and let \(r(f, g)\) be the resultant of \(f,g\in R[ Y]\). Let \(P\in R[ Y]\) have degree \(n\) and for \(1\leq i\leq n\) let \(V_ i(P)= \{v(r (P, Q)) \mid Q\in R[ Y]\) is monic of degree \(i\) and \(r(P, Q)\neq 0\}\). Then the following are equivalent. (a) \(P\) is irreducible. (b) \(V_ i (P)\) is finite for \(1\leq i\leq n-1\). (c) \(V_{[ n/2]} (P)\) is finite, where \([n/2]\) denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to \(n/2\). Some results on the computation of \(V_{[ n/2]} (P)\) are also given, as well as some applications.