Related papers: Primitive normal pairs of elements with one prescr…

We prove that for all $q>211$, there always exists a primitive root $g$ in the finite field $\mathbb{F}_{q}$ such that $Q(g)$ is also a primitive root, where $Q(x)= ax^2 + bx + c$ is a quadratic polynomial with $a, b, c\in \mathbb{F}_{q}$…

Let $G$ be a finite primitive permutation group on a set $\Omega$ and recall that the fixed point ratio of an element $x \in G$, denoted ${\rm fpr}(x)$, is the proportion of points in $\Omega$ fixed by $x$. Fixed point ratios in this…

For a finite set of non-zero natural numbers that contains at least one element different from 1 and the least common multiple of any of its subsets, there exists a subset of at least half of its members which has a common divisor larger…

A well-known conjecture asserts that there are infinitely many primes $p$ for which $p - 1$ is a perfect square. We obtain upper and lower bounds of matching order on the number of pairs of distinct primes $p,q \le x$ for which $(p - 1)(q -…

Let $r > 0$ be an integer, let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be a finite field of $q$ elements, and let $\mathcal{A}$ be a nonempty proper subset of $\mathbb{F}_q$. Moreover, let $\mathbf{M}$ be a random $m \times n$ rank-$r$ matrix over $\mathbb{F}_q$…

In this paper, we prove: Let A be a nonnegative primitive tensor with order m and dimension n. Then its primitive degree R(A)\leq (n-1)^2+1, and the upper bound is sharp. This confirms a conjecture of Shao [7].

Fix an integer $g \neq -1$ that is not a perfect square. In 1927, Artin conjectured that there are infinitely many primes for which $g$ is a primitive root. Forty years later, Hooley showed that Artin's conjecture follows from the…

Let $p$ be a prime and $q$ a power of $p$. For $n\ge 0$, let $g_{n,q}\in\Bbb F_p[{\tt x}]$ be the polynomial defined by the functional equation $\sum_{a\in\Bbb F_q}({\tt x}+a)^n=g_{n,q}({\tt x}^q-{\tt x})$. When is $g_{n,q}$ a permutation…

Let $G = {\rm U}(2m, {\mathbb F}_{q^2})$ be the finite unitary group, with $q$ the power of an odd prime $p$. We prove that the number of irreducible complex characters of $G$ with degree not divisible by $p$ and with Frobenius-Schur…

Let F(z) be a rational function in Q(z) of degree at least 2 with F(0) = 0 and such that F does not vanish to order d at 0. Let b be a rational number having infinite orbit under iteration of F, and write F^n(b) = A_n/B_n as a fraction in…

Suppose that $p$ is an odd prime and $m$ is an integer not divisible by $p$. Sun and Tauraso [Adv. in Appl. Math., 45(2010), 125--148] gave $\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}/m^k$ and $\sum_{k=0}^{n-1}\binom{2k}{k+d}/(km^k)$ modulo $p$ for…

As a consequence of the classification of finite simple groups, the classification of permutation groups of prime degree is complete, apart from the question of when the natural degree $(q^n-1)/(q-1)$ of ${\rm PSL}_n(q)$ is prime. We…

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…

For two odd primes $p$ and $q$ such that $p<q$, let $A(p,q):=(a_k)_{k=1}^{\infty}$ be the arithmetic progression whose $k$th term is given by $a_k=(k-1)(q-p)+p$ (i.e., with $a_1=p$ and $a_2=q$). Here we conjecture that for every positive…

In 2011, Fici and Lipt\'ak introduced prefix normal words. A binary word is prefix normal if it has no factor (substring) that contains more occurrences of the letter 1 than the prefix of the same length. Among the open problems regarding…

Let m be a fixed positive integer. It is well-known that a permutation $\sigma$ may have one, many, or no mth roots. In this note we provide an explicit expression and a generating function for the number of mth roots of \sigma. Let p_m(n)…

There is extensive numerical support for the prime-pair conjecture (PPC) of Hardy and Littlewood (1923) on the asymptotic behavior of pi_{2r}(x), the number of prime pairs (p,p+2r) with p not exceeding x. However, it is still not known…

Let f in Z[x,y] be a reducible homoegeneous polynomial of degree 3. We show that f(x,y) has an even number of prime factors as often as an odd number of prime factors.

A rational Diophantine $m$-tuple is a set $\{a_1,\ldots,a_m\}$ of distinct nonzero rational numbers such that $a_i a_j+1$ is a square for all $1\leq i < j\leq m$. Similarly, we may ask when $a_ia_j+1$ is a $k$-th power. Here, we study the…

For $p$ and $q$ any two distinct Fermat or Mersenne primes, $m,n,r$ as positive integers and $\mu = \pm 1$ satisfying any diophantine relation, $\mbox{(i)}\; 2^m + \mu = p^nq^r, \mbox{(ii)} \; 2^mp^n + \mu = q^r \mbox{ or } \mbox{(iii)} \;…