Apollonius circles and irreducibility criteria for polynomials (Q2076518)

Given two points \(A=(a,0)\) and \(B=(b,0)\) in the plane and \(k>0\), the Apollonious circle is the set \(Ap(a,b,k)\) given by the equation \((X-a+\frac{b-a}{k^2-1})^2+Y^2=k^2(\frac{b-a}{k^2-1})^2.\) The aim of the paper is to study the irreducibility of polynomials \(f\in\mathbb{Z}[X]\) whose roots lie inside a certain Apollonious circle. The authors are proving two results about this problem. In particular, they obtain irreducibility criteria in the case \(f(a)\) and \(f(b)\) have few prime factors and \(f\) has a special form. They are also proving similar results for multivariate polynomials over arbitrary fields, in a non-Archimedean setting.