Decompositions of cascaded GMW functions (Q1609678)

A cascaded Gordon-Mills-Welch (GMW) function is a map from a finite field \(\text{GF}(q^n)\) to a subfield \(\text{GF}(q)\) obtained by concatenating trace maps to a sequence of subfields interleaved with power maps. Such a map \(f_{({\mathbb F}, {\mathbf s})}\) is given by a set of parameters \({\mathbb F}=(F_0,\ldots ,F_r), F_i\subseteq F_{i+1}\), listing the subfields and \({\mathbf s}=(s_0,\ldots ,s_r)\) giving the exponents. A parameter system is called normal if the chain of fields consists of proper subfields and the exponents are nontrivial and each \(s_i\) is a \(p\)-coset leader modulo \(|F_i|-1\), where \(p\) is the characteristic of the field. Using properties of the trace function one sees that such a normal parameter system exists for all cascaded GMW functions. \textit{G. Gong, Z. Dai}, and \textit{S. Golomb} [Discrete Math. 219, 279-285 (2000; Zbl 0954.94006)] showed that shift equivalent GMW functions have the same normal parameter system. In the paper under review the authors prove uniqueness in a more general sense: Let \[ f_{({\mathbb F}, {\mathbf s})}(\theta x)=h\circ f_{(\mathbb{E}, {\mathbf t})}, \] for \(\theta\in F_r, F_r=E_l, F_0\subseteq E_0\) and \(h\) be a function from \(E_0\) to \(F_0\) and let both parameter systems be normal. Then the tuples coincide in the \(l\) rightmost entries \(F_{r-i}=E_{l-i}, s_{r-i}=t_{l-i}, 0\leq i<l\), \(F_{r-l}\subseteq E_0\), \(\theta\in E_0\), and \[ h(x^{t_0})=f_{((F_0,\ldots ,F_{r-l},E_0),(s_0,\ldots ,s_{r-l},1))}(\theta^sx), \] where \(s=\prod_{0\leq i\leq l}s_{r-i}\). In other words, they obtain that if a GMW function is shift equivalent to the concatenation of a GMW function and a function \(h\), then \(h\) is as well a GMW function and the parameters are uniquely given.