Jacobsthal sums and permutations of biquadratic residues (Q1995219)

Let us consider a prime \(p\equiv 1\pmod{8}\) of the form \(a^2+4b^2\) with \(a\equiv -1\pmod{4}\) and \(b>0\). The authors study permutation problems involving biquadratic residues modulo \(p\). In particular, they consider the following situation. Let \[a_1<a_2<\cdots <a_{p-1/4}\] be all the quadratic residues modulo \(p\) in \((0,p/2)\). Then, their squares \[a_1^2,a_2^2,\dots,a_{(p-1)/4}^2\] are all the biquadratic residues modulo \(p\) in \((0,p)\). On the other hand, if \(g\) is a primitive root modulo \(p\), then \[g^4,g^8,\dots,g^{p-1}\] also are all the biquadratic residues modulo \(p\) in \((0,p)\). Thus, if we considered the biquadratic residues modulo \(p\) in increasing order: \[b_1<b_2<\cdots<b_{(p-1)/4}\] it follows that the two previous sequences are just permutations of the latter. Then, the paper is devoted to determine the sign of these two permutations. The main theoretical tool used are the so-called Jacobstal sums