A revisit to a class of permutation quadrinomials (Q2326684)

Let \(\mathbb{F}_q\) be the finite field with \(q\) elements. A polynomial \(f\in\mathbb{F}_q[x]\) is called a permutation polynomial if the induced mapping \(c\mapsto f(c)\) is a bijection on \(\mathbb{F}_q\). Permutation polynomials have several applications in combinatorial designs, coding theory and cryptography. This paper deals with quadrinomials of the form \[ x^3\left(x^{3(q-1)}+a_1x^{2(q-1)}+a_2x^{q-1}+a_3\right)\] over \(\mathbb{F}_{q^2}\), where \(q=2^m\) for an odd integer \(m\). The authors provide a characterization of the coefficients so that such quadrinomials are permutations, thus improving the results in [\textit{Z. Tu} et al., Finite Fields Appl. 50, 304--318 (2018; Zbl 1380.05001)]. Numerical experiments on small finite fields suggest that the new characterization is complete.