An expansion for the coordinates of the trace function over Galois rings (Q1360982)

Let \(m\geq 1\) and \(F_{2^m}\) denote the finite field of \(2^m\) elements, and let \({\alpha}\) be a primitive element in \(F_{2^m}\). A binary sequence \(\{a(t),t \in\mathbb{Z}\}\) of period \(2^m -1\) can be expressed as a polynomial \(a(t) = \sum_d u_d {\alpha}^{dt}\) in \({\alpha}^t\) of degree \(\leq 2^m -2\). The linear span \(L\) of such a sequence is the smallest degree of a linear recursion satisfied by the sequence, which for the polynomial expansion is the number of nonzero coefficients. Let \(T_1\) denote the trace function from \(F_{2^m}\) to \(F_2\) and note that the sequence \(a(t) = T_1 ( {\alpha}^t ) = \sum_{i=0}^{m-1} {\alpha}^{2^i t}\) has linear span \(m\). For \({k \geq 1}\), let \(GR(2^k ,m)\) denote the Galois ring of \(2^{km}\) elements and of characteristic \(2^k\). Let \({\beta}_k\) be an element of order \(2^m -1\) in \(GR(2^k ,m)\). Then \({\alpha} = {\beta}_k \pmod{2}\) is a primitive element in \(F_{2^m}\). Let \(T_k\) denote the trace function from \(GR(2^k ,m)\) to \(\mathbb{Z}/2^k\mathbb{Z}\). The base two expansion of this trace function gives rise to \(k\) binary coordinate sequences of increasing linear span. An expression for these sequences in terms of elementary symmetric functions is provided. As a byproduct, bounds on the linear span of the coordinate sequences are easily derived.