English

On the discriminant and index of a certain class of polynomials

Number Theory 2026-02-18 v1

Abstract

Let f(x)=(x2+1)naxnZ[x]f(x) = (x^{2}+1)^{n} - a x^{n} \in \mathbb{Z}[x] and assume f(x)f(x) is irreducible. Let θ\theta be a root of f(x)f(x), set K=Q(θ)K= \mathbb{Q}(\theta), and denote by ZK\mathbb{Z}_{K} the ring of integers of KK. The index of ff, denoted ind(f)\operatorname{ind}(f), is the index of Z[θ]\mathbb{Z}[\theta] in ZK\mathbb{Z}_{K}. A polynomial f(x)f(x) is said to be monogenic if ind(f)=1\operatorname{ind}(f) = 1. In this article, we explicitly compute the discriminant of the polynomial f(x)f(x), and then derive necessary and sufficient conditions on the parameters aa and nn for f(x)f(x) to be monogenic. Furthermore, we provide a complete description of the primes that divide ind(f)\operatorname{ind}(f).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.15641,
  title  = {On the discriminant and index of a certain class of polynomials},
  author = {Rupam Barman and Anuj Narode and Vinay Wagh},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.15641},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

To appear in Bulletin Australian Math. Soc