A note on Carlitz Wieferich primes (Q503721)

In the classical case, \textit{A. Wieferich} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 136, 293--302 (1909; JFM 40.0256.03)] proved that if the first case of Fermat Last Theorem (FLT) is false for an odd prime \(p\), then \(2^{p-1}\equiv 1 \bmod p^2\). The primes satisfying \(2^{p-1}\equiv 1 \bmod p^2\) are called Wieferich primes. The analogue of this result for function fields is the following. Let \(A={\mathbb F}_q[T]\) and let \(\rho: A\to A\{\tau\}\) be the Carlitz \(A\)-module homomorphism. The analogue of the first case of FLT is the following statement: Statement (*). Let \(q>2\) and \(P\in A\) be a prime of degree \(\deg P>1\). For any \((x,y,z)\in A^3\) with \(P\nmid xyz\), we have \({\mathcal P}_P(x,y,z):=y^{|P|}\rho_P\big( \frac{x}{y}\big)-z^{|P|}\neq 0\). For \(q=2\) we must have \(\deg P>2\). Here, for \(N\in A\setminus\{0\}\), \(|N|:=q^{\deg N}\). The author proves the analogue of Wieferich (Theorem 3.2): if Statement (*) is false for a prime \(P\in A\), then there exists an \(a\in A\) coprime to \(P\) such that \(\rho_P(a)\equiv a^{|P|} \bmod P^2\). Let \(a\in A\setminus\{0\}\). A \textit{\(c\)-Wieferich prime} to base \(a\) is a prime \(P\) in \(A\) coprime to \(a\) such that \(\rho_P(a) \equiv a^{|P|} \mod P^2\). The author finds a necessary and sufficient condition for a prime \(P\) to be a \(c\)-Wieferich prime. As a consequence, it is proved that there are no \(c\)-Wieferich primes of degree \(1\). It is also proved that a \(c\)-Wieferich prime \(P\) satisfies \(\rho_{P-1}(T)\equiv 0 \bmod P^2\). Using these results, a new proof of the infinitude of \(c\)-Wieferich primes in \({\mathbb F}_2[T]\) is given and the author constructs two algorithms for computing \(c\)-Wieferich primes. Finally, it is proved that there exist infinitely many non \(c\)-Wieferich primes in \({\mathbb F}_q[T]\) for \(q>2\).