The period lengths of inversive pseudorandom vector generations (Q1344101)

Let \(GF(q)\) be the finite field of order \(q\), a prime power. For \(a,b\in GF(q)\), let \(X(x_ 0; a,b)\) denote the sequence \(x_ 0, x_ 1, \dots\) obtained by taking the initial element \(x_ 0\in GF(q)\), and using the recursion \(x_{n+1}= ax_ n^{-1}+ b\), if \(x_ n\neq 0\) and \(x_{n+1}=b\), if \(x_ 0=0\), for all \(n\geq 0\). The author describes all possible period lengths of \(X(x_ 0; a,b)\), distinguishing three cases: \(ab=0\) (the trivial case); \(ab\neq 0\), \(b^ 2+ 4a=0\); and \(ab\neq 0\), \(b^ 2+ 4a \neq 0\). In particular, as special cases, this includes some previous results obtained by \textit{J. Eichenauer} and \textit{J. Lehn} [Stat. Hefte 27, 315-326 (1986; Zbl 0607.65001)], \textit{M. Flahive} and \textit{H. Niederreiter} [Lect. Notes Pure Appl. Math. 141, 75-80 (1993; Zbl 0790.11058)], and \textit{H. Niederreiter} [ACM Trans. Modeling Computer Simulation 4, 191-212 (1994)].