On the distribution of polynomials having a given number of irreducible factors over finite fields (Q2679123)

The author proves an asymptotic result for polynomials over finite fields with more that \(2\) elements. Theorem. Let \(B \geq 2\) be a real constant and \(q \neq 2\) be a prime power. Let \(E\) be a real function of \(n\) such that \(E(n)\) goes slowly to infinity with \(n\). Then uniformly for \(k\) such that \[ E(n) \log(n) \leq k \leq n/B \] we have \[ N(n,k) \sim C(q) (k(n-k))^{q-1}q^{n-k} \] where \[ C(q) = ((q-1)!)^{-2} F(q)^{q^2} \prod_{P} F(q^{\deg(P)-1})^{-1}F(q^{\deg(P)})^q. \] Here, \(F(x) = 1-x^{-1}\) and the product is over all monic irreducible polynomials of degree \(>1\) in \(\mathbb{F}_q\). Comment of the reviewer: The name of Mireille Car in the bibliography is incorrectly abbreviated as M. Carr.