Special value set polynomials over finite fields (Q1801926)

For \(q\) a prime power, let \(F_ q\) denote the finite field of order \(q\). Given a polynomial \(f\) over \(F_ q\), the value set of \(f\) is defined to be the set \(\{f(x)\): \(x\in F_ q\}\). Cardinalities of the value sets of various kinds of polynomials over finite fields have been considered, see for example the references in this paper. In particular polynomials with maximal value set are permutation polynomials while those attaining the minimal possible cardinality value set are called minimal value set polynomials. In this paper the author provides estimates for the cardinality of the value set of a special class of polynomials. In particular he proves that if \(m\geq 2\) and \(n\geq 2\) are two integers which divide \(q-1\) and the degree \(d\) of the polynomial \(f\) satisfies \(d=mn<q^{1/4}\), then \[ {{2q} \over {2m+2n-1}} \leq|\{(x^ m+b)^ n:\;x\in F_ q\}|\leq \min\{(q-1)/m,(q-1)/n\}+1 \] for all nonzero \(b\in F_ q\).