Related papers: Choosing elements from finite fields

Planar functions are mappings from a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ to itself with an extremal differential property. Such functions give rise to finite projective planes and other combinatorial objects. There is a subtle difference between…

We examine two different ways of encoding a counting function, as a rational generating function and explicitly as a function (defined piecewise using the greatest integer function). We prove that, if the degree and number of input…

We prove an analogue of the celebrated Hall-Higman theorem, which gives a lower bound for the degree of the minimal polynomial of any semisimple element of prime power order $p^{a}$ of a finite classical group in any nontrivial irreducible…

Harvey Friedman, in his remarkable paper Finite functions and the necessary use of large cardinals, Ann. Math. 148:803-893, 1998 and in a technical report, Applications of large cardinals to graph theory, Ohio State University, 1997,…

Given a square matrix with elements in the group-ring of a group, one can consider the sequence formed by the trace (in the sense of the group-ring) of its powers. We prove that the corresponding generating series is an algebraic…

We study testing properties of functions on finite groups. First we consider functions of the form $f:G \to \mathbb{C}$, where $G$ is a finite group. We show that conjugate invariance, homomorphism, and the property of being proportional to…

For a group G we consider the set of natural numbers n for which the nth cohomology functor of G commutes with filtered colimit systems of coefficient modules. We find that for the large class of hierarchically decomposable groups there is…

Let $n$ and $k$ be positive integers, and $f_n(k)$ (resp. $g_n(k)$) be the number of unital subrings (resp. unital irreducible subrings) of $\mathbb{Z}^n$ of index $k$. The numbers $f_n(k)$ are coefficients of certain zeta functions of…

This is a paper with two aims. First, we show that the map from $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ to itself defined by exponentiation $x\to m^x$ has few $3$-cycles -- that is to say, the number of cycles of length three is $o(p)$. This improves on…

In this paper we explore the structure and properties of C-groups. We define a C-group as a group $G$ with $rk(G) < rk(Z(G))$ (where $rk(G)$ is the minimal cardinal of a generating set for a group $G$). Using GAP (a group theory program)…

Let $G$ be a finite group and $\psi(G) = \sum_{g \in G} o(g)$, where $o(g)$ denotes the order of $g \in G$. First, we prove that if $G$ is a group of order $n$ and $\psi(G) >31\psi(C_n)/77$, where $C_n$ is the cyclic group of order $n$,…

For a large prime $p$, a rational function $\psi \in F_p(X)$ over the finite field $F_p$ of $p$ elements, and integers $u$ and $H\ge 1$, we obtain a lower bound on the number consecutive values $\psi(x)$, $x = u+1, \ldots, u+H$ that belong…

Let f be a polynomial with irrational leading coefficient. We obtain inequalities for the distance from the nearest integer of f(p) that hold for infinitely many primes p. These results improve work of Harman in 1981 and 1983 and Wong in…

Let $${\mathbb P}^c=(\lfloor p^c\rfloor)_{p\in{\mathbb P}} \qquad (c>1,\ c\not\in {\mathbb N}), $$ where ${\mathbb P}$ is the set of prime numbers, and $\lfloor\cdot\rfloor$ is the floor function. We show that for every such $c$ there are…

Let $PD(\mathbb{R})$ be the family of continuous positive definite functions on $\mathbb{R}$. For an integer $n>1$, a $f\in PD(\mathbb{R})$ is called $n$-divisible if there is $g\in PD(\mathbb{R})$ such that $g^n=f$. Some properties of…

We consider rational functions of the form $V(x)/U(x)$, where both $V(x)$ and $U(x)$ are polynomials over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. Polynomials that permute the elements of a field, called {\it permutation polynomials ($PPs$)}, have…

Properties of higher characters are developed and applied to symmetric products and Frobenius algebras. A `constructive' proof of the Gel'fand-Kolmogorov theorem is given. Generalisations of that theorem and the Nullstellensatz to symmetric…

Given a finite group $G$, we denote by $\psi\,'(G)$ the product of element orders of $G$. Our main result proves that the restriction of $\psi\,'$ to abelian $p$-groups of order $p^n$ is strictly increasing with respect to a natural order…

Let ${\mathbf{F}}_q$ be the finite field with $q=p^m$ elements and $G$ be a subgroup of ${\rm{GL}}_n({\mathbf{F}}_q)$. A famous theorem of Nori published in 1987 states that there exists a (non-effective) constant $c(n)$, depending only on…

We present a general method for introducing finitely axiomatizable "minimal" two-sorted theories for various subclasses of P (problems solvable in polynomial time). The two sorts are natural numbers and finite sets of natural numbers. The…