Difference polynomials and their generalizations

A well-known result of Ehrenfeucht states that a difference polynomial f(X)-g(Y) in two variables X, Y with complex coefficients is irreducible if the degrees of f and g are coprime. Panaitopol and Stefanescu generalized this result, by giving an irreducibility condition for a larger class of polynomials called “generalized difference polynomials”. This paper gives an irreducibility criterion for more general polynomials, of which the criterion of Panaitopol and Stefanescu is a special case.