Characterizing absolutely irreducible integer-valued polynomials over discrete valuation domains (Q6170773)

For a commutative ring \(A\) with identity, an irreducible element \(a \in A\) is called \textit{absolutely irreducible}, if for every \(k \in \mathbb N\) the element \(a^k\) has (up to associates) only the trivial factorization \(a \cdot a \cdot \ldots \cdot a\). Let \(R\) be a discrete valuation domain with finite residue field \(R/pR\), where \(p\) is a prime element of \(R\), and let \(K\) denote the quotient field of \(R\). The authors investigate absolutely irreducible elements of the ring \[ \text{Int}(R) = \{ F \in K[X] \mid F(R) \subseteq R \} \] of all integer-valued polynomials of \(K[X]\). Every irreducible \(F \in \text{Int}(R)\) can be written in the form \(F = f/p^n\) with some primitive polynomial \(f \in R[X]\) and \(n \ge 0\). The authors prove that \(F\) is absolutely irreducible in \(\text{Int}(R)\) if and only if the \textit{fixed divisor kernel} of \(f\) is trivial (and \(f\) is not a proper power of a polynomial of \(R[X]\)). The notions and ideas for the proof are contained in Section 4 of the paper. Furthermore, for given \(F\) as above, the authors determine explicite values \(s \in \mathbb N\) such that \(F\) is absolutely irreducible if and only if \(F^s\) has only the trivial factorization in \(\text{Int}(R)\). Finally they argue that these values for \(s\) are best possible.