Smooth values of polynomials

Abstract

Given $f\in \mathbb{Z}[t]$ of positive degree, we investigate the existence of auxiliary polynomials $g\in \mathbb{Z}[t]$ for which $f(g(t))$ factors as a product of polynomials of small relative degree. One consequence of this work shows that for any quadratic polynomial $f\in\mathbb{Z}[t]$ and any $\epsilon > 0$, there are infinitely many $n\in\mathbb{N}$ for which the largest prime factor of $f(n)$ is no larger than $n^{\epsilon}$.