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LS07.pdf
Proposition 2. Given $f ∈\Bbb Z[t]$. Then $f$ is irreducible over $\Bbb Q$ if and only if $f$ is irreducible over $\Bbb Z$.
Proof of Proposition 2. We show that if $f$ is reducible over $\mathbb{Q}$, then it is also reducible over $\mathbb{Z}$. First off, we may as well assume $f$ is primitive, because if not we can divide through by the gcd of the coefficients of $f$, creating a primitive polynomial which is reducible iff the original was.
Now suppose $f=g h$ for some $g, h \in \mathbb{Q}[t]$. There exists some $\alpha, \beta \in \mathbb{Z}$ such that $\alpha g, \beta h \in \mathbb{Z}[t]$, and $\alpha g, \beta h$ are both primitive. Now observe that
$$
\alpha \beta f=(\alpha g)(\beta h) .
$$
This implies that $\alpha \beta f$ is the product of two primitive polynomials, hence must itself be primitive. But, since we also assumed $f$ to be primitive, we deduce that $\alpha, \beta=\pm 1$. Therefore, it must have been the case that $g, h \in \mathbb{Z}[t]$, and the theorem is proved. |
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