Value sets of Dickson polynomials over Galois rings (Q1814425)

A Dickson polynomial of degree \(d\) over a ring \(R\) with 1 is one of the form \[ g_d(x,a) = \sum^{[d/2]}_{t=0} \frac{d}{d-t}\binom{d-t}{t}(- a)^t x^{d-2t}, \] where \(a\in R\). Such polynomials are important, for example, in finite field theory where they become permutation polynomials when \((d,q^2-1)=1\), \(q\) being the order of the field. This paper considers Dickson polynomials over the Galois ring \(R= \mathrm{GR}(p^n,m)\). (This is a ring of order \(p^{mn}\) isomorphic to the quotient ring \(\mathbb{Z}[x]/(f,p^n)\) where \(\mathbb{Z}\) denotes the ring of integers, \(f=f(x)\) is a monic irreducible of degree \(m\) over \(\mathbb{Z}\) which is also irreducible when taken modulo \(p\), and \((f,p^n)\) is the ideal in \(\mathbb{Z}[x]\) generated by \(f\) and the integer \(p^n\). Such a Galois ring is the usual ring of integers modulo \(p^n\) when \(m=1\), and it is the finite field \(\mathrm{GF}(p^ m)\) when \(n=1\).) Of interest in this paper is the so-called value set of \(g_d(x,a)\) which, by definition, is the set \(\{g_d(\alpha,a): \alpha\in R\}\). Note, that the value set has cardinality \(p^{mn}\) iff \(g_d(x,a)\) is a permutation polynomial on \(R\). The authors show, for the case that the element \(a\) is a unit in \(R\) and \(n>1\), that \(g_d(x,a)\) is a permutation polynomial on \(R\) iff \((d,p^{2m}-1) = (d,p) = 1\). More generally, they give estimates of the cardinality of the value set of \(g_d(x,a)\) and in certain cases determine precisely the cardinality of the preimage of \(g_d(\alpha,a)\).