Necessary and sufficient conditions for scatteredness of the generalized quadrinomial

Let t3t\geq 3, let 1s2t11\leq s\leq 2t-1, and let mFqtm\in\mathbb F_{q^t} and hFq2th\in\mathbb F_{q^{2t}}. Consider the qsq^s-polynomial

ψm,h,s=m(Xqsh1qs(t1)Xqs(t1))+Xqs(t+1)+h1qs(2t1)Xqs(2t1)L~n,q,s.\psi_{m,h,s}=m\left(X^{q^s}-h^{1-q^{s(t-1)}}X^{q^{s(t-1)}}\right)+X^{q^{s(t+1)}}+h^{1-q^{s(2t-1)}}X^{q^{s(2t-1)}}\in\widetilde{\mathcal L}_{n,q,s}.

Scatteredness conjecture. The polynomial ψm,h,s\psi_{m,h,s} is scattered if and only if mm and hh satisfy the assumptions in Theorem~.

The conjecture asserts that the sufficient conditions established in Theorem~ are also necessary. The paper reports computational evidence for this necessity, while the general equivalence remains open.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Alessandro Giannoni, Giovanni Giuseppe Grimaldi, Giovanni Longobardi and Marco Timpanella, “Generalizing a family of scattered quadrinomials in F_q^2t[X]”, arXiv:2601.09415 (2026).

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