Normal generators of finite fields (Q1196902)

Let \(F_{p^ n}\) be the finite field of order \(p^ n\) where \(p\) is a prime and \(n\geq 2.\) A normal basis of \(F_{p^ n}\) over \(F_ p\) is a basis of the form \(\alpha, \alpha ^ p, \alpha ^{p^ 2}, \dots ,\alpha ^{p^{n-1}},\) where \(\alpha \in F_{p^ n}.\) Such an \(\alpha\) is called a normal generator of \(F_{p^ n}.\) It is well known that every finite field has a normal basis, in fact it is known that \(F_{p^ n}\) contains \((1/n) \mathbf\Phi (x^ n-1)\) distinct normal bases where \(\mathbf\Phi\) denotes the \(F_{p^ n}[x]\) polynomial ring analogue of the classical Euler \(\phi\) function from elementary number theory. In the present paper the author derives the following formula for \(N(p^ n),\) the number of normal bases of \(F_{p^ n}\) over \(F_ p.\) For each positive integer \(d\) with \(gcd(d,p)=1,\) define \({O}_ d(p)\) to be the smallest positive integer such that \(p^{{O} _ d(p)} \equiv 1\) (mod \(d\)), and let \(n_ 0\) be the integer defined by \(n=p^ sn_ 0\) with \(gcd(p,n_ 0)=1.\) Then \[ N(p^ n)=p^{n-n_ 0} \prod(p^{{O}_ d(p)} - 1)^{\phi(d)/{{O}_ d(p)}}, \] where the product is over all \(d\) dividing \(n_ 0\) and \(\phi\) denotes Euler's function.