Pólya's theorem of \(\mathbb{F}_ q[T]\) (Q1366674): Difference between revisions

In classical analysis, a theorem due to \textit{G. Pólya} [Über ganzwertige ganze Funktionen, Palermo Rend. 40, 1-16 (1915; JFM 45.0655.02)] states that an entire function of exponential order \(<1\), or exponential order 1 and type \(<\log 2\), which takes integer values on the set of nonnegative integers must be a polynomial. Now let \({\mathcal A}= \mathbb{F}_q[T]\). It is well-known that \({\mathcal A}\) is analogous to \(\mathbb{Z}\) in many ways; in fact the theory of Drinfeld modules, etc., is based on such analogies. In this interesting paper, the author establishes an elegant analog of Pólya's result for \({\mathcal A}\). In other words, let \(k\) be the quotient field of \({\mathcal A}\), \(K= k_\infty=\) the completion at the place \(\infty\) of \(k\), \(\overline K\) a fixed algebraic closure of \(K\) with its canonical metric and \(C_\infty\) the completion of \(\overline K\). As \(C_\infty\) has an absolute value, one obviously has entire power series with \(C_\infty\)-coefficients and so on. It is for these types of functions that the author's results hold. Remarkably, the proofs of these results involve the use of the ``Carlitz polynomials''. These are polynomials with \({\mathcal A}\)-coefficients which first appeared in [\textit{L. Carlitz}, Duke Math. J. 6, 486-504 (1940; Zbl 0026.05304)]; they are an excellent analog for \({\mathcal A}\) of the classical binomial polynomials \({s\choose j}\).