The Proportion of Irreducible p-adic Polynomials

Abstract

We attempt to quantify the exact proportion of monic $p$-adic polynomials of degree $n$ which are irreducible. We find an exact answer to this when $n$ is prime and $p\ne n$, and also when $n=4$ and $p\ne 2$. Our answers are rational functions in $p$. This relates to previous work done to find exact proportions of $p$-adic polynomials of degree $n$ which have $k$ roots.

24 pages