Power-free values of polynomials (Q633178)

The author investigates power-free values of polynomials in one and two variables. Let \(f(x)\in\mathbb Z[x]\) and \(F(\vec x)\in\mathbb Z[\vec x]\), \(\vec x:= (x+1, x_2)\). For \(k\in\mathbb Z\), \(k\geq 2\), let \(N_1(f,k; X)\), \(N_2(f,k; X)\), and \(N_3(F,k; X)\) denote the number of those integers \(n\) in the interval \([1,X]\), the number of those primes \(p\) in the same interval, and the number of those pairs \(\vec n\) in \((\mathbb Z\cap[1,X])^2\) for which \(f(n)\), \(f(p)\), and \(F(\vec n)\) are \(k\)-free integers, respectively. Assuming \(f(x)\) be irreducible of degree \(d\), \(d\geq 3\), and \(k\geq(3d+ 1)/4\), the author proves the asymptotic formulae \[ N_1(f,k; X)\sim C_1(f, k)X\quad\text{and}\quad N_2(f, k; X)\sim C_2(f, k)X/\log X \] as \(X\to\infty\), with explicitly given \(C_1\) and \(C_2\). As a consequence of those formulae, he concludes that if \(d\geq 9\) and \(f(\mathbb Z/p^{d-2}\mathbb Z)\neq\{0\}\) for every prime \(p\), then \(N_1(f, d-2; X)\to\infty\) as \(X\to\infty\) and that if \(d\geq 5\) and \(f((\mathbb Z/p^{d-1}\mathbb Z)^*)\neq\{0\}\) for every prime \(p\), then \(N_2(f, d-1; X)\to\infty\) as \(X\to\infty\). Further, it is proved that \(N_3(F,k; X)\gg X^2\) for an irreducible ``non-degenerate'' polynomial \(F\) as soon as \(d\geq 4\), \(k\geq\alpha d\) with \(\alpha= 7/16\) if \(F\) is homogeneous and \(\alpha= 39/64\) if \(F\) is non-homogeneous, and \(f((\mathbb Z/p^k\mathbb Z)^2)\neq\{0\}\) for every prime \(p\) (a polynomial \(F(\vec x)\) is said to be degenerate if \(F(\vec x)= g(ax_1+ bx_2)\) for some \(a\), \(b\) in \(\mathbb Z\) and \(g(t)\) in \(\mathbb Z[t]\)).