Dickson polynomials, completely normal polynomials and the cyclic module structure of specific extensions of finite fields (Q679430)

Since normal bases are very useful for efficiently performing arithmetic operations in algebraic extensions over finite fields \(F\), the explicit construction of such bases in recent years has become an active research area. The knowledge of generators for finite \(F[x]\)-submodules of the algebraic closure of \(F\) (with respect to the Frobenius automorphism over \(F\)) is very useful, since these generators occur as building blocks for normal bases. In the present paper the author uses certain transforms of the well-known Dickson polynomials (intensively studied because of their permutation properties) to describe all the irreducible submodules which are contained in some extension \(E\) over \(F=GF(q)\), where the square-free part of \([E:F]\) is an odd divisor of \(q+1\). Moreover, he uses the description of these modules to construct irreducible polynomials with corresponding degree which have the interesting property of being completely normal. This means that for each root \(\alpha\) of such a polynomial, \(\alpha\) generates a normal basis for \(F(\alpha)\) over \(K\), where \(K\) runs over every intermediate field of \(F(\alpha)\) over \(F\). For further recent work in this area, [see \textit{I. Blake, S. Gao}, and \textit{R. C. Mullin}, Linear Algebra Appl. 253, 227-249 (1997; Zbl 0870.11075)] and the references given there.