Permutation properties of Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind over a finite field (Q1344100)

Let \(F_ q\) denote the finite field of order \(q= p^ e\) where \(p\) is a prime. A polynomial \(f\) over \(F_ q\) is a permutation polynomial if the mapping induced by \(f\) is a permutation of \(F_ q\). The Chebyshev (Dickson) polynomial of the second kind of degree \(k\) is defined by \[ f_ k (x)= \sum_{i=0}^{\lfloor k/2 \rfloor} {{k-i} \choose i} (- 1)^ i x^{k- 2i}. \] In his Ph.D. thesis [Univ. of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania, 1982], the second author showed that \(k+1\equiv \pm 2 \pmod m\), is a sufficient condition for the polynomial \(f_ k (x)\) to permute \(F_ q\), \(q\) odd, where \(m\) takes on each of the values \(p\), \((q-1)/2\), \((q+1)/2\). Establishing the necessity of these conditions has proven to be a very difficult task. \textit{S. D. Cohen} has shown in [Can. J. Math. 46, No. 2, 225-238 (1994; Zbl 0796.11054)] and [Number theoretic and algebraic methods in computer science, World Scientific, to appear] that if \(q\) is an odd prime or the square of an odd prime \(p> 5\), then these conditions are indeed also necessary for \(f_ k (x)\) to permute \(F_ q\). For general prime powers the problem remains open, but in this paper the authors describe new classes of such permutations for characteristics \(p=3,5\) and also obtain some results in characteristic 2.