Squares in \mathbb{F}_{p^2} and permutations involving primitive roots

Abstract: Let

p = 2 n + 1

be an odd prime, and let

z e t a_{p^{2} - 1}

be a primitive

(p^{2} - 1)

-th root of unity in the algebraic closure

o v e r l i n e m a t h b b Q_{p}

of

m a t h b b Q_{p}

. We let

g i n m a t h b b Z_{p} [z e t a_{p^{2} - 1}]

be a primitive root modulo

p m a t h b b Z_{p} [z e t a_{p^{2} - 1}]

with

g e q u i v z e t a_{p^{2} - 1} p m o d p m a t h b b Z_{p} [z e t a_{p^{2} - 1}]

. Let

D e l t a e q u i v 3 p m o d 4

be an arbitrary quadratic non-residue modulo

p

in

m a t h b b Z

. By the Local Existence Theorem we know that

m a t h b b Q_{p} (s q r t D e l t a) = m a t h b b Q_{p} (z e t a_{p^{2} - 1})

. For all

x i n m a t h b b Z [s q r t D e l t a]

and

y i n m a t h b b Z_{p} [z e t a_{p^{2} - 1}]

we use

and

to denote the elements

x m o d p m a t h b b Z [s q r t D e l t a]

and

y m o d p m a t h b b Z_{p} [z e t a_{p^{2} - 1}]

respectively. If we set

a_{k} = k + s q r t D e l t a

for

0 l e k l e p - 1

, then we can view the sequence

S := overline{a_0^2}, cdots, overline{a_0^2n^2}, cdots,overline{a_{p-1}^2}, cdots, overline{a_{p-1}^2n^2}cdots, overline{1^2}, cdots,overline{n^2}

as a permutation

s i g m a

of the sequence

S^* := overline{g^2}, overline{g^4}, cdots,overline{g^{p^2-1}}.

We determine the sign of

s i g m a

completely in this paper.

This page was built for publication: Squares in $\mathbb{F}_{p^2}$ and permutations involving primitive roots