Density of normal elements (Q1266417)

For a prime power \(q>1\) let \(F_q\) be the finite field of order \(q\); for a monic \(f \in F_q[x]\) let \(\phi(f)\) denote the number of units in \(R_f=F_q[x]/(f)\), and let \(\kappa(f)=\phi(f)/| R_f| \) be the density of units in \(R_f\). The authors prove that, whenever \(x\) is not a divisor of \(f\), \(\kappa(f) > e^{0.83}(1+\log_q(n))\), where \(n\) is the degree of \(f\). The case where \(f=x^n-1\) for some \(n\) is of particular interest, as the number of units is then equal to the number of normal basis generators for the \(n\)-dimensional extension \(F_{q^n}\) over \(F_q\). In this context, the authors prove that for any \(n\) and any \(q\) there exists a positive number \(C(q,\nu(n))\) depending on \(q\) and the square-free part \(\nu(n)\) of \(n\) such that \(\kappa(x^n-1)\geq C(q,\nu(n))\). On the other hand, given \(q\) and defining \(n(m):=\prod_{j=1}^m(q^j-1)\), one has \[ \kappa(x^{n(m)}-1) \leq \left( \gamma(q) \sqrt{1+\log_q(n(m))}\right)^{-1}, \] where \(\gamma(q) >0\) only depends on \(q\); consequently, for the tower \((F_{q^{n(m)}})_{m\geq 1}\) of field extensions, the density of normal elements converges to zero for increasing \(m\).