English

Connected components of the graph generated by power maps in prime finite fields

Number Theory 2017-06-08 v2

Abstract

Consider the power pseudorandom-number generator in a finite field Fq{\mathbb F}_q. That is, for some integer e2e\ge2, one considers the sequence u,ue,ue2,u,u^e,u^{e^2},\dots in Fq{\mathbb F}_q for a given seed uFq×u\in {\mathbb F}_q^\times. This sequence is eventually periodic. One can consider the number of cycles that exist as the seed uu varies over Fq×{\mathbb F}_q^\times. This is the same as the number of cycles in the functional graph of the map xxex\mapsto x^e in Fq×{\mathbb F}_q^\times. We prove some estimates for the maximal and average number of cycles in the case of prime finite fields.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1703.09292,
  title  = {Connected components of the graph generated by power maps in prime finite fields},
  author = {Carl Pomerance and Igor E. Shparlinski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1703.09292},
  year   = {2017}
}