Primitive element pairs with a prescribed trace in the cubic extension of a finite field
Authors:
- Andrew R. BookerABAndrew R. Booker
- Stephen D. CohenSCStephen D. Cohen
- Nicol LeongNLNicol Leong
- Tim TrudgianTTTim Trudgian
Preprint
Abstract
We prove that for any prime power $q\notin\{3,4,5\}$, the cubic extension $\mathbb{F}_{q^3}$ of the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$ contains a primitive element $\xi$ such that $\xi+\xi^{-1}$ is also primitive, and $\textrm{Tr}_{\mathbb{F}_{q^3}/\mathbb{F}_q}(\xi)=a$ for any prescribed $a\in\mathbb{F}_q$. This completes the proof of a conjecture of Gupta, Sharma, and Cohen concerning the analogous problem over an extension of arbitrary degree $n\ge3$.