Polynomial products modulo primes and applications (Q2297587)

For a polynomial \(P(x)\in{\mathbb Z}[x]\) and \(n\geq 1\), put \(F_P(n)=\prod_{k\leq n} P(k)\pmod{p}\), where \(p\) is a prime. Perfect power values of this expression are investigated by many authors; see e.g. results of Erdős-Selfridge (linear case) or Cilleruelo (quadratic case). The authors study arithmetic dynamical systems generated by \(F_P(n)\), and provide several related results. Among others, they show that \[ \# S_d(M,N)\ll N^{7/8}(\log N)^{1/4}, \] where \(S_d(M,N)\) \((d,M,N\geq 1)\) is the set of integers \(n\), for which all the numbers \(n=M+1,\ldots,M+N\) can be written in the form \(dt^2\). (This result improves an estimate of Cilleruelo, Luca, Quirós and Shparlinski.) As an application, they give a new, improved lower bound on the number of distinct quadratic fields of the form \(\mathbb Q(\sqrt{F_P(n)})\) in short intervals. They give further related results, as well, for example, for the number of missing values of \(F_P(n)\pmod{p}\) for certain special families of polynomials, generalizing several theorems from the literature.