POLYNOMIAL VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF SIERPIŃSKI
In 1960, Sierpiński proved that there exist infinitely many odd positive integers k such that k · 2n + 1 is composite for all integers n ≥ 0. Variations of this problem, using polynomials with integer coefficients, and considering reducibility over the rationals, have been investigated by several authors. In particular, if S is the set of all positive integers d for which there exists a polynomial f(x) ∈ ℤ[x], with f(1) ≠ -d, such that f(x)xn + d is reducible over the rationals for all integers n ≥ 0, then what are the elements of S? Interest in this problem stems partially from the fact that if S contains an odd integer, then a question of Erdös and Selfridge concerning the existence of an odd covering of the integers would be resolved. Filaseta has shown that S contains all positive integers d ≡ 0 (mod 4), and until now, nothing else was known about the elements of S. In this paper, we show that S contains infinitely many positive integers d ≡ 6 (mod 12). We also consider the corresponding problem over 𝔽p, and in that situation, we show 1 ∈ S for all primes p.