Around the GCD of the Values of Two Polynomials (Q6901020)

Let \(A(x), B(x)\in \mathbb Z[x].\) For \(n\in \mathbb Z,\) let \(G(n)=\gcd(A(n), B(n)).\) Let \(p\) be a prime. Let \(N \wedge p^{\infty}\) denote the greatest power \(p^\omega\) dividing \(N\) and write \(v_p(N)=\omega\) to represent the valuation of \(N.\) In this interesting article, the notion of resultant \(\Delta\) (corresponding to polynomials \(A(x), B(x)\)) is used to prove that the sequence \((G(n))_{n\in \mathbb Z}\) is periodic. Further the vital information connected to its pattern (associated with \(p)\) which is precisely the list of elements of the sequence forming a minimal period: \N\[\N\underline {m}_p=[G(0)\wedge p^\infty, G(1)\wedge p^\infty,\ldots, G(p^\mu-1)\wedge p^\infty]_{p^\mu}\N\]\Nis noteworthy. Theorem 6 in the article explains that if \(A(x), B(x)\) are coprime (in \(\mathbb Q[x]),\) then the sequence \((G(n)\wedge p^\infty)_{n\in \mathbb Z}\) is periodic of a period \(p^{\omega_p},\) where \(\omega_p=v_p(\Delta).\) Also for all \(n\in \mathbb Z, G(n)=\displaystyle\prod_{p\mid \Delta}\underline {m}_p(n)\) and \((G(n))_{n\in \mathbb Z}\) is periodic with a period dividing \(\Delta.\) Moreover if we take any element \(\underline {m}_{p_1}(n_1)\) of pattern \(\underline {m}_{p_1},\) any element \(\underline {m}_{p_2}(n_2)\) of pattern \(\underline {m}_{p_2},\ldots,\) then there exists \(n\in \mathbb Z\) such that \(G(n)\) is equal to the product of \(\underline {m}_{p_i}(n_i).\) Some strong constraints on these patterns have also been pointed out. Note that in Theorem 9, if \(A(x), B(x)\) are coprime monic polynomials with resultant \(\Delta\) and \(G(n)=A(n)\wedge B(n), n\in \mathbb Z;\) then for integers \(n_1, \ldots, n_l\) with \(l\leq \deg(A)+\deg(B),\) we have \N\[\N\prod_{i=1}^{l}G(n_i)|\Delta\times\prod_{1\leq i<j\leq l}(n_j-n_i)\N\]\Nand in particular, if \(p^{\omega_1}|G(n_1), p^{\omega_2}|G(n_2),\) then \(v_p(n_2-n_1)\geq \omega_1+\omega_2-v_p(\Delta).\) It is worth mentioning here that if \(A(x)=a_1x+a_0\in \mathbb Z[x]\) with \(a_0, a_1\) being coprime and \(B(x)=x^e+b_{e-1}x^{e-1}+\ldots+b_0\) is a monic polynomial coprime to \(A(x), \omega=v_p(\Delta),\) then the pattern \(\underline {m}_p\) defined by \(A(n)\wedge B(n)\wedge p^\omega\) is the basic pattern \([n\wedge p^\omega]_{p^\omega}\) upto circular permutation. Moreover a direct formula to compute the gcd of \(A(n), B(n)\) in the case of polynomials that are split into distinct linear factors modulo \(p\) is provided (see Theorem 14). Let \(\delta\) denote the smallest positive integer such that there exist \(U(x), V(x)\in \mathbb Z[x]\) with \(A(x)U(x)+B(x)V(x)=\delta.\) Proposition 15 in the article provides a link between \(\delta\) and the existence of common roots of \(A(x)\) and \(B(x)\) modulo powers of \(p.\) The examples are lucid and the presentation is elegant.