On the graph of a function in many variables over a finite field

Some improved bounds on the number of directions not determined by a point set in the affine space AG(k, q) are presented. More precisely, if there are more than p ^e (q − 1) directions not determined by a set of q ^k-1 points then every hyperplane meets in 0 modulo p ^e+1 points. This bound is shown to be tight in the case p ^e = q ^s and when q = p ^es sets of q ^k-1 points that do not meet every hyperplane in 0 modulo p ^e+1 points and have a little less than p ^e (q − 1) non-determined directions are constructed. The author acknowledges the support of the Ramon y Cajal programme and the project MTM2005-08990-C02-01 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education and the project 2005SGR00256 of the Catalan Research Council.     

On the number of directions determined by a pair of functions over a prime field

A three-dimensional analogue of the classical direction problem is proposed and an asymptotically sharp bound for the number of directions determined by a non-planar set in AG(3,p), p prime, is proved. Using the terminology of permutation polynomials the main result states that if there are more than pairs with the property that f(x)+ag(x)+bx is a permutation polynomial, then there exist elements c,d,e∈Fp with the property that f(x)=cg(x)+dx+e.     

On diameter of the commuting graph of a full matrix algebra over a finite field

It is shown that the commuting graph of a matrix algebra over a finite field has diameter at most five if the size of the matrices is not a prime nor a square of a prime. It is further shown that the commuting graph of even-sized matrices over finite field has diameter exactly four. This partially proves a conjecture stated by Akbari, Mohammadian, Radjavi, and Raja [Linear Algebra Appl. 418 (2006) 161–176].     

On the distance function of a connected graph

An axiomatic characterization of the distance function of a connected graph is given in this note. The triangle inequality is not contained in this characterization.     

On computation of the greatest common divisor of several polynomials over a finite field

We propose a probabilistic algorithm to reduce computing the greatest common divisor of m polynomials over a finite field (which requires computing m−1 pairwise greatest common divisors) to computing the greatest common divisor of two polynomials over the same field.     

On the graph of a function over a prime field whose small powers have bounded degree

Let f be a function from a finite field with a prime number p of elements, to . In this article we consider those functions f(X) for which there is a positive integer with the property that f(X)ⁱ, when considered as an element of , has degree at most p−2−n+i, for all i=1,…,n. We prove that every line is incident with at most t−1 points of the graph of f, or at least n+4−t points, where t is a positive integer satisfying n>(p−1)/t+t−3 if n is even and n>(p−3)/t+t−2 if n is odd. With the additional hypothesis that there are t−1 lines that are incident with at least t points of the graph of f, we prove that the graph of f is contained in these t−1 lines. We conjecture that the graph of f is contained in an algebraic curve of degree t−1 and prove the conjecture for t=2 and t=3. These results apply to functions that determine less than directions. In particular, the proof of the conjecture for t=2 and t=3 gives new proofs of the result of Lovász and Schrijver [L. Lovász, A. Schrijver, Remarks on a theorem of Rédei, Studia Sci. Math. Hungar. 16 (1981) 449–454] and the result in [A. Gács, On a generalization of Rédei’s theorem, Combinatorica 23 (2003) 585–598] respectively, which classify all functions which determine at most 2(p−1)/3 directions.     

On the matrix ring over a finite field

Let F_n be the ring of n × n matrices over the finite field F; let o(F_n) be the number of elements in F_n, and s(F_n) be the number of singular matrices in F_n. We prove that $\text{o(F}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{)<s(F}{}_{\mathrm{n}}\text{)}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>1+1</mtext><mtext>n(n-1)</mtext>}}$ if n ? 2, and if n = 2 and o(F) ? 3, then .     

Solving linear equations in a vector space over a finite field

We study the maximum possible size of a subset in a vector space over a finite field which contains no solution of a given linear equation (or a system of linear equations). This is a finite field version of Ruzsa's work [7].     

Some remarks on the Picard curves over a finite field

In this paper we study the Newton polygon of the L ‐polynomial L (t) associate to the Picard curves y³ = x⁴ – 1, y³ = x⁴ – x defined over a finite field ??_p . In the former case we get a complete classification. In the latter case we obtained a partial result. As a consequence of our result we obtain a criterion to find a supersingular Picard curves for the above two cases. Our main results are stated in Theorems 3.1 and 4.1. (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

On the genus of a cyclic curve over a finite field

Cyclic curves, i.e. curves fixed by a cyclic collineation group, play a central role in the investigation of cyclic arcs in Desarguesian projective planes. In this paper, the genus of a cyclic curve arising from a cyclic k-arc of Singer type is computed.     

On value sets of polynomials over a field

Let F be any field. Let p(F) be the characteristic of F if F is not of characteristic zero, and let p(F)=+∞ otherwise. Let A₁,…,A_n be finite nonempty subsets of F, and let

with k{1,2,3,…}, a₁,…,a_nF{0} and degg<k. We show that

When kn and |A_i|i for i=1,…,n, we also have

consequently, if nk then for any finite subset A of F we have

In the case n>k, we propose a further conjecture which extends the Erdős–Heilbronn conjecture in a new direction.     

On recognition of finite simple groups with connected prime graph

The spectrum of a finite group is the set of its element orders. We prove a theorem on the structure of a finite group whose spectrum is equal to the spectrum of a finite nonabelian simple group. The theorem can be applied to solving the problem of recognizability of finite simple groups by spectrum.     

On a class of diagonal equations over finite fields

Using properties of Gauss and Jacobi sums, we derive explicit formulas for the number of solutions to a diagonal equation of the form $x_1^{2^m}+\cdots +x_n^{2^m}=0$ over a finite field of characteristic $p\equiv \pm 3(\mathrm{mod}8)$. All of the evaluations are effected in terms of parameters occurring in quadratic partitions of some powers of p.