On Certain Probabilistic Properties of Polynomials over the Ring of p-adic Integers

Abstract

In this article, we study several probabilistic properties of polynomials defined over the ring of p-adic integers under the Haar measure. First, we calculate the probability that a monic polynomial is separable, generalizing a result of Polak. Second, we introduce the notion of two polynomials being strongly coprime and calculate the probability of two monic polynomials being strongly coprime. Finally, we explain how our method can be used to extrapolate other probabilistic properties of polynomials over the ring of p-adic integers from polynomials defined over the integers modulo powers of p.