The Chebotarev density theorem for function fields -- incomplete intervals (Q2031634)

Let \({\mathbb F}_p[x]\) be the polynomial ring of one variable over the finite field of \(p\) elements, with \(p\) a prime number. An incomplete interval \(I\) in \({\mathbb F}_p\) is a set of the form \(I=[M,M+1,\ldots,M+n]\) with \(M\in {\mathbb F}_p\) and \(n\in{\mathbb N}\). A monic polynomial \(f(x)\in {\mathbb F}_p[x]\) of degree \(d\) is a \textit{Morse} polynomial if \(|\{f(\xi): f'(\xi)=0\}|=d-1\). If \(f(x)\) is a Morse polynomial of degree \(d\), we have \(|\{a\in{\mathbb F}_p: f(x)+a\}|=\frac pd + O_d(p^{1/2})\). In fact, the distribution of factorization types of \(f(x)+a\) can be computed. If \(f(x)=\prod_{i=1}^l f_i(x)\) with \(f_i(x)\in {\mathbb F}_p[x]\) irreducible and \(d_i=\deg f_i\), \(1\leq d_1\leq \ldots \leq d_l\), we say that the \textit{factorization type} of \(f\) is \((d_1,\ldots,d_l)\). The distribution of factorization types of \(f(x)+a\) for a Morse polynomial \(f(x)\) is consistent with the distribution of cycle types of permutations in the symmetric group \(S_d\) with respect to the Haar measure. The goal of this paper is to show that equidistribution of factorization types holds for incomplete intervals \(I\subseteq {\mathbb F}_p\) as long as \((p^{1/2}\log p)/|I|\) is small. Let \(p\) be a large prime, \(K={\mathbb F}_p (x)\) and let \(L/K\) be a finite Galois extension with Galois group \(G\). Let \({\mathcal O}_K={\mathbb F}_p[x]\) and let \(\big(\frac{L/K}{\mathfrak p}\big)\) denote the Artin symbol, a certain conjugacy class in \(G\). The result (Theorem 1) is the following. Let \(C\subseteq G\) be a conjugacy class. Let \(\mathrm{Frob}_p\) be the Frobenius map and let \({\mathbb F}_{p^n}\) be the field of constants of \(L\). Let \(m=[L:K{\mathbb F}_{p^n}]\). If \(\tau|_{ {\mathbb F}_{p^n}}=\mathrm{Frob}_p|_{{\mathbb F}_{p^n}}\) for all \(\tau\in C\), then \(|\{a\in I: \big(\frac{L/K}{{\mathfrak p}_a}\big)=C\}|=\frac{|C|}{m}|I|+O_{[L:K]} (p^{1/2}\log p)\). Here \({\mathfrak p}_a\) is the ideal generated by \(x-a\). Theorem 1 is a consequence of the following result. If \(\psi\colon {\mathbb F}_p\longrightarrow {\mathbb C}^*\) is a non-trivial character, then \[\Big|\sideset{}{'}\sum\limits_{a\in{\mathbb F}_p: \big(\frac{L/K}{{\mathfrak p_a}}\big) =C}\psi(a)\Big| \ll [L:K]p^{1/2}\] where \(\sideset{}{'}\sum\) denotes the sum restricted to \(a\in{\mathbb F}_p\) such that \({\mathfrak p}_a\) is unramified in \(L\). As applications of the main result, the authors give distributions of irreducible polynomials. Let \(p>d+1\) be a large prime, and let \(f(x)=x^d+\sum_{i=0}^{d-1}a_ix^i\in {\mathbb F}_p[x]\). Then there exist subsets \(B_1,B_2,B_3\subseteq {\mathbb F}_p\) such that \(|B_i|=O_d(1)\), \(1\le i\le 3\) and that for an incomplete interval \(I \subseteq {\mathbb F}_p\), the densities of: (1) \(|\{\alpha\in I: f(x)+\alpha \text{ is irreducible}\}|\) for \(a_1\in {\mathbb F}_p \setminus B_1\); (2) \(|\{\alpha\in I: f(x)+\alpha x \text{ is irreducible}\}|\) for \(a_0\in{\mathbb F}_p \setminus B_2\); and (3) \(|\{\alpha\in I: f(x)+\alpha x^m \text{ is irreducible}\}|\) for \(a_1\neq 0\), \(a_0\in {\mathbb F}_p \setminus B_3\) and for any integer \(m\in [2,d-1]\); are given explicitly. An immediate application is a deterministic time algorithm for constructing irreducible polynomials of degree \(d\) of quite general shapes.