Estimating the greatest common divisor of the value of two polynomials

Abstract

Let $p$ be a fixed prime, and let $v(a)$ stand for the exponent of $p$ in the prime factorization of the integer $a$. Let $f$ and $g$ be two monic polynomials with integer coefficients and nonzero resultant $r$. Write $S$ for the maximum of $v(\gcd (f(n),g(n)))$ over all integers $n$. It is known that $S\le v(r)$. We give various lower and upper bounds for the least possible value of $v(r)-S$ provided that a given power $p^s$ divides both $f(n)$ and $g(n)$ for all $n$. In particular, the least possible value is $p{s}^2-s$ for $s\le p$ and is asymptotically $(p-1)s^2$ for large $s$.

12 pages