On primitive elements in finite fields of low characteristic (Q491996)

Let \(\mathbb F_q\) be the finite field of \(q\) elements, let \(n\in\mathbb N\) and denote by \(\mathcal{Q}(d)\) the set of monic polynomials of degree \(d\) of \(\mathbb F_q[T]\) which are primitive for \(\mathbb F_{q^n}\). In the paper under review a lower bound on the density of primitive elements among polynomials of degree \(d\) is obtained. More precisely, for a divisor \(d\sim C\log_q n\) of \(n\), it is shown that the density of elements of \(\mathcal{Q}(d)\) has the asymptotic behavior \[ \frac{| \mathcal{Q}(d)|}{q^d}\sim\frac{\varphi(N-1)}{N-1}, \] where \(\varphi(\cdot)\) is the Euler totient function and \(N=q^n\). Further, an upper bound on the absolute vale of the difference of both terms in the above expression is provided. The proof of this result relies on bounds for character sums over short intervals in \(\mathbb F_q[T]\). Let \(Q\in\mathbb F_q[T]\) be a polynomial of degree \(n\) and \(\chi\) a non-principal character modulo \(Q\). It is proved that, for \(2\log_qn\leq r\leq d\leq n\), \[ \sum_{f\in A_d}\chi(f)=\sum_{f\in\mathcal{P}(d,r)}\chi(f)+\mathcal{O}(nq^{-r/2}q^d) \] where \(A_d\) is the set of all polynomials of \(\mathbb F_q[T]\) of degree \(d\) and \(\mathcal{P}(d,r)\) is the set of \(r\)-smooth polynomials (none of the irreducible factors have degree greater than \(r\)) of \(A_d\). This constitutes a function-field analogue for estimates for sums of Dirichlet characters due to [\textit{A. Granville} and \textit{K. Soundararajan}, J. Am. Math. Soc. 14, No. 2, 365--397 (2001; Zbl 0983.11053)].