A modification of Fitzgerald's characterization of primitive polynomials over a finite field (Q2469474)

Let \(p\) be a prime and \(q\) a power of \(p\). The reviewer [Finite Fields Appl. 9, No. 1, 117--121 (2003; Zbl 1033.11055)] showed that a polynomial \(p(x)\in \mathbb{F}_q[x]\) of degree \(k\) is primitive iff \((x^m-1)/(x-1)p(x)\) has exactly \((q-1)q^{k-1}-1\) non-zero terms, where \(m=2^k-1\). Here the authors consider, for \(t=m/(q-1)\), the smaller quotient \((x^t-1)/(x-1)p(x)\), which has the form \(h(x)+r(x)/p(x)\). They show that \(p(x)\) is primitive iff the number of non-zero terms of \(h(x)\) plus the number of non-zero terms in a finite recursion sequence \(\varepsilon_n\), defined via the coefficients of \(r(x)\), is again \((q-1)q^{k-1}-1\). They also give a qualitative characterization: \(p(x)\) is primitive iff the sequence \(\varepsilon_n\) (\(t-k-1\leq n\leq m\)) contains no two identical periodic subsequences.