The mod 2 cohomology of the mapping class group of the Klein bottle with marked points

The purpose of this article is to compute the mod 2 cohomology of ${\mathrm{\Gamma }}^q(\mathbb{K})$, the mapping class group of the Klein bottle with q marked points. We provide a concrete construction of Eilenberg–MacLane spaces $X_q=K({\mathrm{\Gamma }}^q(\mathbb{K}),1)$ and fiber bundles $F_q(\mathbb{K})/{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_q\to X_q\to B({\mathbb{Z}}_2\times O(2))$, where $F_q(\mathbb{K})/{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_q$ denotes the configuration space of unordered q-tuples of distinct points in $\mathbb{K}$ and $B({\mathbb{Z}}_2\times O(2))$ is the classifying space of the group ${\mathbb{Z}}_2\times O(2)$. Moreover, we show the mod 2 Serre spectral sequence of the bundle above collapses.     

Bivariate identities related to Chebyshev and Dickson polynomials over Fq

Let ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ be a field of q elements, where q is a power of an odd prime p. The polynomial $f(y)\in {\mathbb{F}}_q[y]$ defined by$f(y):={(1+\sqrt{y})}^{(q+1)/2}+{(1-\sqrt{y})}^{(q+1)/2}$ has the property that$f(1-y)=\rho (2)f(y),$ where ρ is the quadratic character on ${\mathbb{F}}_q$. This univariate identity was applied to prove a recent theorem of N. Katz. We formulate and prove a bivariate extension, and give an application to quadratic residuacity.     

The covering radius of PGL2(q)

The covering radius of a subset $C$ of the symmetric group ${\mathrm{S}}_n$ is the maximal Hamming distance of an element of ${\mathrm{S}}_n$ from $C$. This note determines the covering radii of the finite $2$-dimensional projective general linear groups. It turns out that the covering radius of ${\mathrm{PGL}}_2\left(q\right)$ is $q?2$ if $q$ is even, and is $q?3$ if $q$ is odd.     

Lehmer's totient problem over Fq[x]

In this paper, we consider the function field analogue of the Lehmer's totient problem. Let $p(x)\in {\mathbb{F}}_q[x]$ and $\phi (q,p(x))$ be the Euler's totient function of $p(x)$ over ${\mathbb{F}}_q[x]$, where ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ is a finite field with q elements. We prove that $\phi (q,p(x))|(q^{\mathrm{deg}(p(x))}?1)$ if and only if (i) $p(x)$ is irreducible; or (ii) $q=3$, $p(x)$ is the product of any 2 non-associate irreducibles of degree 1; or (iii) $q=2$, $p(x)$ is the product of all irreducibles of degree 1, all irreducibles of degree 1 and 2, and the product of any 3 irreducibles one each of degree 1, 2 and 3.     

Construction of quasi-cyclic self-dual codes

There is a one-to-one correspondence between ?-quasi-cyclic codes over a finite field ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ and linear codes over a ring $R={\mathbb{F}}_q[Y]/(Y^m?1)$. Using this correspondence, we prove that every ?-quasi-cyclic self-dual code of length m? over a finite field ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ can be obtained by the building-up construction, provided that $\mathrm{char}({\mathbb{F}}_q)=2$ or $q\equiv 1(\mathrm{mod}4)$, m is a prime p, and q is a primitive element of ${\mathbb{F}}_p$. We determine possible weight enumerators of a binary ?-quasi-cyclic self-dual code of length p? (with p a prime) in terms of divisibility by p. We improve the result of Bonnecaze et al. (2003) [3] by constructing new binary cubic (i.e., ?-quasi-cyclic codes of length 3?) optimal self-dual codes of lengths $30,36,42,48$ (Type I), 54 and 66. We also find quasi-cyclic optimal self-dual codes of lengths 40, 50, and 60. When $m=5$, we obtain a new 8-quasi-cyclic self-dual $[40,20,12]$ code over ${\mathbb{F}}_3$ and a new 6-quasi-cyclic self-dual $[30,15,10]$ code over ${\mathbb{F}}_4$. When $m=7$, we find a new 4-quasi-cyclic self-dual $[28,14,9]$ code over ${\mathbb{F}}_4$ and a new 6-quasi-cyclic self-dual $[42,21,12]$ code over ${\mathbb{F}}_4$.     

Necessary conditions for reversed Dickson polynomials of the second kind to be permutational

In this paper, we present several necessary conditions for the reversed Dickson polynomial $E_n(1,x)$ of the second kind to be a permutation of ${\mathbb{F}}_q$. In particular, we give explicit evaluation of the sum ${\sum }_{a\in {\mathbb{F}}_q}{E}_n(1,a)$.     

Transcendence degree one function fields over a finite field with many automorphisms

Let $\mathbb{K}$ be the algebraic closure of a finite field ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ of odd characteristic p. For a positive integer m prime to p, let $F=\mathbb{K}(x,y)$ be the transcendence degree 1 function field defined by $y^q+y=x^m+x^{?m}$. Let $t=x^{m(q?1)}$ and $H=\mathbb{K}(t)$. The extension $F|H$ is a non-Galois extension. Let K be the Galois closure of F with respect to H. By Stichtenoth [20], K has genus $\mathfrak{g}(K)=(qm?1)(q?1)$, p-rank (Hasse–Witt invariant) $\gamma (K)={(q?1)}^2$ and a $\mathbb{K}$-automorphism group of order at least $2q^{2}m(q?1)$. In this paper we prove that this subgroup is the full $\mathbb{K}$-automorphism group of K; more precisely ${\text{Aut}}_{\mathbb{K}}(K)=\mathrm{\Delta }?D$ where Δ is an elementary abelian p-group of order $q^2$ and D has an index 2 cyclic subgroup of order $m(q?1)$. In particular, $\sqrt{m}|{\text{Aut}}_{\mathbb{K}}(K)|>\mathfrak{g}{(K)}^{3/2}$, and if K is ordinary (i.e. $\mathfrak{g}(K)=\gamma (K)$) then $|{\text{Aut}}_{\mathbb{K}}(K)|>{\mathfrak{g}}^{3/2}$. On the other hand, if G is a solvable subgroup of the $\mathbb{K}$-automorphism group of an ordinary, transcendence degree 1 function field L of genus $\mathfrak{g}(L)\ge 2$ defined over $\mathbb{K}$, then $|{\text{Aut}}_{\mathbb{K}}(K)|\le 34{(\mathfrak{g}(L)+1)}^{3/2}<68\sqrt{2}\mathfrak{g}{(L)}^{3/2}$; see [15]. This shows that K hits this bound up to the constant $68\sqrt{2}$.Since ${\text{Aut}}_{\mathbb{K}}(K)$ has several subgroups, the fixed subfield $F^N$ of such a subgroup N may happen to have many automorphisms provided that the normalizer of N in ${\text{Aut}}_{\mathbb{K}}(K)$ is large enough. This possibility is worked out for subgroups of Δ.