Carlitz module analogues of Mersenne primes, Wieferich primes, and certain prime elements in cyclotomic function fields (Q741677)

The aim of this paper is the study of the analogue of Mersenne primes in the context of global function fields. Let \(C_T\) be the Carlitz module, that is, \(C_T a=Ta+a^q\) for every \(a\in \bar{k}\), where \(k={\mathbb F}_q (T)\). We have that \(C_m(x)\) is analogous to the polynomial \((1+x)^m -1\in{\mathbb Z}[x]\). A prime in \(A={\mathbb F}_q[T]\) is called a \textit{Mersenne prime} if it is of the form \(\alpha C_P(1)\), for \(P\in A^+\), where \(A^+\) denotes the set of monic irreducible polynomials in \(A\), and \(\alpha\in{\mathbb F}_q^{\ast}\). For any \(m\in A\setminus\{0\}\), let \(K_m=k(\Lambda_m)\) be the cyclotomic function field, where \(\Lambda_m=\{\lambda\in \bar{k}\mid C_m(\lambda)=0\}\). First, the author proves that if \(m\in A\) is monic and \(\alpha\in A\), then for \(q\geq 3\) and assuming that \(C_m(\alpha)\in A^+\), we have \(m\in A^+\) and \(\alpha \in {\mathbb F}_q^{\ast}\). As corollary it is obtained that if \(P\in A^+\), then \(C_{P-1}(1)\equiv 0\bmod P\). The first main result of the paper is that for \(q>2\), there exist infinitely many \(P\in A^+\) such that the Mersenne numbers \(C_P(1)\) are composite. Next, the author uses the notion of Wieferich primes in \(A\) introduced by \textit{D. S. Thakur} [Finite Fields Appl. 32, 192--206 (2015; Zbl 1378.11102)] and proves an analogue of a classical result, that is, for \(q>3\), let \(M_P=\alpha C_P(1)\) be a Mersenne prime where \(\alpha\) is a unit in\(A\) and \(P\in A^+\). Then \(M_P\) is a non-Wieferich prime. It is also proved that if \(P\in A^+\) and \(M_P=\alpha C_P(1)\) is a Mersenne number, where \(\alpha \in {\mathbb F}_q^{\ast}\), then \(Q\equiv 1\bmod P\) for every \(Q\in A^+\) dividing \(M_P\). In the last section is proved a criterion that determines whether a Mersenne number is prime or not. If \(P\in A^+\) and \(M_P=\alpha C_P(1)\) with \(\alpha \in {\mathbb F}_q^{\ast}\), then \(M_P\) is prime if and only if \(1-\lambda_P\) is prime in the ring of integers \({\mathcal O}_P\) of \(K_P\), where \(\lambda_P\) is a generator of \(\Lambda_P\).