Prescribed-coefficients point-count formula for irreducible polynomials over finite fields

Let q=prq=p^r, let 1l0<<lm11\le l_0<\cdots<l_{m-1}, let (tl0,,tlm1)(Fq)m(t_{l_0},\ldots,t_{l_{m-1}})\in(\mathbb{F}_q)^m, and let n0,,p1+logplm11\overline{n}\in\\{0,\ldots,p^{1+\lfloor\log_p l_{m-1}\rfloor}-1\\}. Write Fq(n,tl0,,tlm1)F_q(n,t_{l_0},\ldots,t_{l_{m-1}}) for the number of irreducible polynomials of degree nn over Fq\mathbb{F}_q with the prescribed coefficients indexed by l0,,lm1l_0,\ldots,l_{m-1}.

Prescribed-coefficients enumeration conjecture. There exist ω1,,ωNZ\omega_1,\ldots,\omega_N\in\overline{\mathbb{Z}}, all of norm q\sqrt q, υ1,,υNZ\upsilon_1,\ldots,\upsilon_N\in\mathbb{Z}, and an integer s0s\ge0 such that, for every nlm1n\ge l_{m-1} satisfying

nn(modp1+logplm1),n\equiv\overline{n}\pmod{p^{1+\lfloor\log_p l_{m-1}\rfloor}},

one has

Fq(n,tl0,,tlm1)=1qm(qn+1qsi=1Nυiαin)=qnm+O(qn/2).F_q(n,t_{l_0},\ldots,t_{l_{m-1}})=\frac{1}{q^m}\left(q^n+\frac{1}{q^s}\sum_{i=1}^N\upsilon_i\alpha_i^n\right)=q^{n-m}+O(q^{n/2}).

Here the claim is understood uniformly for every choice of the displayed finite-field data and residue class.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Robert Granger, “On the Enumeration of Irreducible Polynomials over GF(q) with Prescribed Coefficients”, arXiv:1610.06878 (2019).

Progress summary

Never refreshed

Nothing recorded yet. Refresh searches the literature and the public web for attempts on this problem, and writes the first summary here.

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.