Factoring formal power series over principal ideal domains

Abstract

We provide an irreducibility test and factoring algorithm (with some qualifications) for formal power series in the unique factorization domain $R[[X]]$, where $R$ is any principal ideal domain. We also classify all integral domains arising as quotient rings of $R[[X]]$. Our main tool is a generalization of the $p$-adic Weierstrass preparation theorem to the context of complete filtered commutative rings.