Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 March 2018
Given a global field $K$ and a positive integer
$n$, we present a diophantine criterion for a polynomial in one variable of degree
$n$ over
$K$ not to have a root in
$K$. This strengthens a result by Colliot-Thélène and Van Geel [Compositio Math. 151 (2015), 1965–1980] stating that the set of non-
$n$th powers in a number field
$K$ is diophantine. We also deduce a diophantine criterion for a polynomial over
$K$ of given degree in a given number of variables to be irreducible. Our approach is based on a generalisation of the quaternion method used by Poonen and Koenigsmann for first-order definitions of
$\mathbb{Z}$ in
$\mathbb{Q}$.