On a conjecture on permutation rational functions over finite fields (Q2238914)

A polynomial \(f(X)\in{\mathbb F}_{p^n}[X]\) is called a \textit{permutation polynomial} if \(f(X)\) permutes \({\mathbb F}_{p^n}\). The authors are interested in \textit{permutation rational functions} (PRs) \(f(X)\in {\mathbb F}_{p^n} (X)\), that is, \(f(X)\) permutes \({\mathbb F}_{p^n}\). Let \(b\in {\mathbb F}_{p^n}\) be such that \(\mathrm{Tr}_{{\mathbb F}_{p^n}/{\mathbb F}_{p}} (b)\neq 0\) and let \(f_b(X)=X+\frac 1{X^p-X+b}\in {\mathbb F}_{p^n}(X)\). \textit{J. Yuan} et al. proved in [Finite Fields Appl. 14, No. 2, 482--493 (2008; Zbl 1211.11136)] that for \(p=2,3\) and all \(n\geq 1\), \(f_b\) is a PR of \({\mathbb F}_{p^n}\). The second named author and \textit{C. Sze} proved in [Finite Fields Appl. 68, Article ID 101758, 9 p. (2020; Zbl 1456.11219)] that for \(p>3\) and \(n\geq 5\), \(f_b\) is not a PR of \( {\mathbb F}_{p^n}\), and for \(p>3\) and \(n=2\), \(f_b\) is a PR of \( {\mathbb F}_{p^2}\) if and only if \(\mathrm{Tr}_{ {\mathbb F}_{p^2}/ {\mathbb F}_{p}}(b)=\pm 1\). The goal of this paper is to prove that for sufficiently large \(p\), and \(n=3,4\), \(f_b\) is not a PR of \( {\mathbb F}_{p^n}\). More precisely they prove for \(n=3\) and \(p\geq 1,734,097\) (Theorem 3.1), and for \(n=4\) and \(p\geq 100,018,663\), (Theorem 4.1) that \(f_b\) is not a PR of \( {\mathbb F}_{p^3}\) and of \({\mathbb F}_{p^4}\) respectively. The proofs are based on the Lang-Weil bound on the number of zeros of absolutely irreducible polynomials over finite fields. The main technical tool is the existence, for \(n=3\) of a polynomial of degree 18 in \({\mathbb F}_{p} [Y_1,Y_2,Y_3]\) that has a cyclic absolutely irreducible factor in \({\mathbb F}_{p} [Y_1,Y_2,Y_3]\), and for \(n=4\), the existence of a polynomial of degree 46 in \({\mathbb F}_{p}[Y_1,Y_2,Y_3,Y_4]\) that has a cyclic irreducible factor in \({\mathbb F}_{p}[Y_1,Y_2,Y_3,Y_4]\).