Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
For a commutative ring $R$, a polynomial
$f\,\in \,R[x]$ is called separable if
$R[x]/f$ is a separable
$R$-algebra. We derive formulae for the number of separable polynomials when
$R\,=\,\mathbb{Z}/n$, extending a result of L. Carlitz. For instance, we show that the number of polynomials in
$\mathbb{Z}/n[x]$ that are separable is
$\phi (n){{n}^{d}}{{\prod }_{i}}(1\,-\,p_{i}^{-d})$, where
$n\,=\,\prod p_{i}^{{{k}_{i}}}$ is the prime factorisation of
$n$ and
$\phi $ is Euler’s totient function.