Zero-free angular sectors and lens-shaped regions for polynomials, with applications to irreducibility

Abstract

For a real polynomial $f$ we present explicit zero-free angular sectors in the complex plane, symmetric with respect to the real axis, with angles depending only on the degree of $f$, and vertices expressed in terms of the coefficients of $f$. We also describe zero-free lens-shaped regions for $f$ that are associated to the zero-free sectors of the reciprocal of $f$. As an application, we use these zero-free regions to obtain irreducibility criteria for polynomials with integer coefficients that take a prime or a prime power value.