The problem of N-digit sets all permutations of which give primes is discussed. Such sets may include only digits 1, 3, 7 and 9, and none of 0, 2, 5, 4, 6, 8. Direct calculations show that such full-permutation digit sets occur at N = 1, 2, 3 and are absent in the 4 - 10 interval of N. On the other hand the formal full permutation at N = 19, 23, 317 and 1031 (as well at N = 2) cases is provided by repunits (integers all digits of which are 1). The existence/nonexistence of other (not repunits) full-permutation digit sets for arbitrary large N is an open question with probable negative answer. The maximal-permutation digit sets with maximal number of primes are given for N = 4 - 10.
A rationality condition is derived for the existence of odd perfect numbers involving the square root of a product, which consists of a sequence of repunits, multiplied by twice the base of one of the repunits. This constraint also provides an upper bound for density of odd integers which could satisfy ${{σ(N)}\over N}=2$, where $N$ belongs to a fixed interval with a lower limit greater than $10^{300}$. Characteristics of prime divisors of repunits are used to establish whether the product containing the repunits can be a perfect square. It is shown that the arithmetic primitive divisors with …
Cantor primes are primes p such that 1/p belongs to the middle-third Cantor set. One way to look at them is as containing the base-3 analogues of the famous Mersenne primes, which encompass all base-2 repunit primes, i.e., primes consisting of a contiguous sequence of 1's in base 2 and satisfying an equation of the form p + 1 = 2^q. The Cantor primes encompass all base-3 repunit primes satisfying an equation of the form 2p + 1 = 3^q, and I show that in general all Cantor primes > 3 satisfy a closely related equation of the form 2pK + 1 = 3^q, with the base-3 repunits being the special case K =…
Conway and Smith introduced the operation of metacommutation for pairs of primes in the ring of Hurwitz integers in the quaternions. We study the permutation induced on the primes of norm p by a prime of norm q under metacommutation, where p and q are distinct rational primes. In particular, we show that the sign of this permutation is the quadratic character of q modulo p.
Suppose x^m + c*x^n is a permutation polynomial over GF(p), where p>5 is prime, m>n>0, and c is in GF(p)^*. We prove that gcd(m-n,p-1) is not 2 or 4. In the special case that either (p-1)/2 or (p-1)/4 is prime, this was conjectured in a recent paper by Masuda, Panario and Wang.
In this article, we study the metacommutation problem in locally Eichler orders. From this arises a permutation of the set of locally principal left ideals of a given prime reduced norm. Previous results on the cycle structure were determined for locally maximal orders. As we extend these results, we present an alternative, combinatorial description of the metacommutation permutation as an action on the Bruhat-Tits tree.
As a consequence of the classification of finite simple groups, the classification of permutation groups of prime degree is complete, apart from the question of when the natural degree $(q^n-1)/(q-1)$ of ${\rm L}_n(q)$ is prime. We present heuristic arguments and computational evidence to support a conjecture that for each prime $n\ge 3$ there are infinitely many primes of this form, even if one restricts to prime values of $q$.
Cohn and Kumar showed the quadratic character of $q$ modulo $p$ gives the sign of the permutation of Hurwitz primes of norm $p$ induced by the Hurwitz primes of norm $q$ under metacommutation. We demonstrate that these permutations are equivalent to those induced by the right standard action of $\operatorname{PGL}_2 (\mathbb{F}_p)$ on $\mathbb{P}^1 (\mathbb{F}_p)$. This equivalence provides simpler proofs of the results of Cohn and Kumar and characterizes the cycle structure of the aforementioned permutations. Our methods are general enough to extend to all orders over the quaternions with a d…
Let $q>2$ be a prime power and $f=-{\tt x}+t{\tt x}^q+{\tt x}^{2q-1}$, where $t\in\Bbb F_q^*$. We prove that $f$ is a permutation polynomial of $\Bbb F_{q^2}$ if and only if one of the following occurs: (i) $q$ is even and $\text{Tr}_{q/2}(\frac 1t)=0$; (ii) $q\equiv 1\pmod 8$ and $t^2=-2$.
Let $p$ be an odd prime and $e$ be a positive integer. We completely explain the permutation binomials and trinomials arising from the reversed Dickson polynomials of the $(k+1)$-th kind $D_{n,k}(1,x)$ over $\mathbb{F}_{p^e}$ when $n=p^l+2$, where $l\in \mathbb{N}$.
Let $q$ be a prime power and $n$ and $r$ be positive integers. It is well known that the linearized binomial $L_r(x)=x^{q^r}+ax\in\mathbb{F}_{q^n}[x]$ is a permutation polynomial if and only if $(-1)^{n/d}a^{{(q^n-1)}/{(q^{d}-1)}}\neq 1$ where $d=(n,r)$. In this paper, the compositional inverse of $L_r(x)$ is explicitly determined when this condition holds.
Rubinstein and Sarnak investigated systems of inequalities of the form pi(x;q,a_1) > ... > pi(x;q,a_r), where pi(x;q,a) denotes the number of primes up to x that are congruent to a mod q. They showed, under standard hypotheses on the zeros of Dirichlet L-functions mod q, that the set of positive real numbers x for which these inequalities hold has positive (logarithmic) density delta_{q;a_1,dots,a_r} > 0. They also discovered the surprising fact that a certain distribution associated with these densities is not symmetric under permutations of the residue classes a_j in general, even if the a_j…
We present a general theorem characterizing the relationship between the prime base $p$ representations of non-negative integers $x$ and their positive integer powers, $x^n$. For any positive integer $l$, the theorem establishes the existence of bijective mappings (permutations) between all $p^l$ members $x$ of each non-zero residue class mod $p$ satisfying $x < p^{l+1}$. These mappings are obtained as the integer part of ${x^p}{p^{-α}}$ for a particular positive integer $α$, depending on $n$ and $p$, called the "coding shift", for which an explicit formula is given. For relatively prime $n$ a…
The discrete logarithm is a problem that surfaces frequently in the field of cryptography as a result of using the transformation g^a mod n. This paper focuses on a prime modulus, p, for which it is shown that the basic structure of the functional graph is largely dependent on an interaction between g and p-1. In fact, there are precisely as many different functional graph structures as there are divisors of p-1. This paper extracts two of these structures, permutations and binary functional graphs. Estimates exist for the shape of a random permutation, but similar estimates must be created fo…
Let $p=3n+1$ be a prime with $n\in\mathbb{N}=\{0,1,\cdots\}$, and let $g\in\mathbb{Z}$ be a primitive root modulo $p$. Let $0<a_1<\cdots<a_n<p$ be all the cubic residues modulo $p$ in the interval $(0,p)$. Then clearly the sequence $$a_1\ {\rm mod}\ p,\ a_2\ {\rm mod}\ p,\cdots, a_n\ {\rm mod}\ p$$ is a permutation $s_p(g)$ of the sequence $$g^3\ {\rm mod}\ p,\ g^6\ {\rm mod}\ p,\cdots, g^{3n}\ {\rm mod}\ p.$$ In this paper, we shall determine the sign of this permutation.
We prove that if x^m + c*x^n permutes the prime field GF(p), where m>n>0 and c is in GF(p)^*, then gcd(m-n,p-1) > sqrt{p} - 1. Conversely, we prove that if q>=4 and m>n>0 are fixed and satisfy gcd(m-n,q-1) > 2q*(log log q)/(log q), then there exist permutation binomials over GF(q) of the form x^m + c*x^n if and only if gcd(m,n,q-1) = 1.
For q > 2, Carlitz proved that the group of permutation polynomials (PPs) over F_q is generated by linear polynomials and x^{q-2}. Based on this result, this note points out a simple method for representing all PPs with full cycle over the prime field F_p, where p is an odd prime. We use the isomorphism between the symmetric group S_p of p elements and the group of PPs over F_p, and the well-known fact that permutations in S_p have the same cycle structure if and only if they are conjugate.
We build on the work of Drakakis et al. (2011) on the maximal cross-correlation of the families of Welch and Golomb Costas permutations. In particular, we settle some of their conjectures. More precisely, we prove two results. First, for a prime $p\ge 5$, the maximal cross-correlation of the family of the $φ(p-1)$ different Welch Costas permutations of $\{1,\ldots,p-1\}$ is $(p-1)/t$, where $t$ is the smallest prime divisor of $(p-1)/2$ if $p$ is not a safe prime and at most $1+p^{1/2}$ otherwise. Here $φ$ denotes Euler's totient function and a prime $p$ is a safe prime if $(p-1)/2$ is also pr…
The $k$th Dickson polynomial of the first kind, $D_k(x) \in {\mathbb Z}[x]$, is determined by the formula: $D_k(u+1/u) = u^k + 1/u^k$, where $k \ge 0$ and $u$ is an indeterminate. These polynomials are closely related to Chebyshev polynomials and have been widely studied. Leonard Eugene Dickson proved in 1896 that $D_k(x)$ is a permutation polynomial on ${\mathbb F}_{p^n}$, $p$ prime, if and only if GCD$(k,p^{2n}-1)=1$, and his result easily carries over to Chebyshev polynomials when $p$ is odd. This article continues on this theme, as we find special subsets of ${\mathbb F}_{p^n}$ that are st…
We consider Hopf-Galois structures on separable (but not necessarily normal) field extensions $L/K$ of squarefree degree $n$. If $E/K$ is the normal closure of $L/K$ then $G=\mathrm{Gal}(E/K)$ can be viewed as a permutation group of degree $n$. We show that $G$ has derived length at most $4$, but that many permutation groups of squarefree degree and of derived length $2$ cannot occur. We then investigate in detail the case where $n=pq$ where $q \geq 3$ and $p=2q+1$ are both prime. (Thus $q$ is a Sophie Germain prime and $p$ is a safeprime). We list the permutation groups $G$ which can arise, a…
Let $q$ be a prime power. We determine all permutation trinomials of $\Bbb F_{q^2}$ of the form $ax+bx^q+x^{2q-1}\in\Bbb F_{q^2}[x]$. The subclass of such permutation trinomials of $\Bbb F_{q^2}$ with $a,b\in\Bbb F_q$ was determined in a recent paper by the author.
Let $p$ be a prime and $n$ be a positive integer, and consider $f_b(X)=X+(X^p-X+b)^{-1}\in \Bbb F_p(X)$, where $b\in\Bbb F_{p^n}$ is such that $\text{Tr}_{p^n/p}(b)\ne 0$. It is known that (i) $f_b$ permutes $\Bbb F_{p^n}$ for $p=2,3$ and all $n\ge 1$; (ii) for $p>3$ and $n=2$, $f_b$ permutes $\Bbb F_{p^2}$ if and only if $\text{Tr}_{p^2/p}(b)=\pm 1$; and (iii) for $p>3$ and $n\ge 5$, $f_b$ does not permute $\Bbb F_{p^n}$. It has been conjectured that for $p>3$ and $n=3,4$, $f_b$ does not permute $\Bbb F_{p^n}$. We prove this conjecture for sufficiently large $p$.
Let $p$ be a prime and $n$ be a positive integer. Let $f_b(X)=X+(X^p-X+b)^{-1}$, where $b\in\Bbb F_{p^n}$ is such that $\text{Tr}_{p^n/p}(b)\ne 0$. In 2008, Yuan et al. \cite{Yuan-Ding-Wang-Pieprzyk-FFA-2008} showed that for $p=2,3$, $f_b$ permutes $\Bbb F_{p^n}$ for all $n\ge 1$. Using the Hasse-Weil bound, we show that when $p>3$ and $n\ge 5$, $f$ does not permute $\Bbb F_{p^n}$. For $p>3$ and $n=2$, we prove that $f_b$ permutes $\Bbb F_{p^2}$ if and only if $\text{Tr}_{p^2/p}(b)=\pm 1$. We conjecture that for $p>3$ and $n=3,4$, $f_b$ does not permute $\Bbb F_{p^n}$.
A celebrated analogy between prime factorizations of integers and cycle decompositions of permutations is explored here. Asymptotic formulas characterizing semismooth numbers (possessing at most several large factors) carry over to random permutations. We offer a survey of practical methods for computing relevant probabilities of a bivariate or trivariate flavor.
Consider S_n, the symmetric group on n letters, and let maj pi denote the major index of a permutation pi in S_n. Given positive integers k,l and nonnegative integers i,j, define m_n^{k,l}(i,j) := number of pi in S_n such that maj pi = i (mod k) and maj pi^{-1} = j (mod l). We prove bijectively that if k,l are relatively prime and at most n then m_n^{k,l}(i,j) = n!/(kl) which, surprisingly, does not depend on i and j. Equivalently, if m_n^{k,l}(i,j) is interpreted as the (i,j)-entry of a matrix m_n^{k,l}, then this is a constant matrix under the stated conditions. This bijection is extended to…
Let $q>2$ be a prime power and $f={\tt x}^{q-2}+t{\tt x}^{q^2-q-1}$, where $t\in\Bbb F_q^*$. It was recently conjectured that $f$ is a permutation polynomial of $\Bbb F_{q^2}$ if and only if one of the following holds: (i) $t=1$, $q\equiv 1\pmod 4$; (ii) $t=-3$, $q\equiv \pm1\pmod{12}$; (iii) $t=3$, $q\equiv -1\pmod 6$. We confirm this conjecture in the present paper.
Hegarty conjectured for $n\neq 2, 3, 5, 7$ that $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$ has a permutation which destroys all arithmetic progressions mod $n$. For $n\ge n_0$, Hegarty and Martinsson demonstrated that $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$ has an arithmetic-progression destroying permutation. However $n_0\approx 1.4\times 10^{14}$ and thus resolving the conjecture in full remained out of reach of any computational techniques. However, this paper using constructions modeled after those used by Elkies and Swaminathan for the case of $\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}$ with $p$ being prime, establish the conjecture in ful…
Let $p$ be a prime and $q$ a power of $p$. For $n\ge 0$, let $g_{n,q}\in\Bbb F_p[{\tt x}]$ be the polynomial defined by the functional equation $\sum_{a\in\Bbb F_q}({\tt x}+a)^n=g_{n,q}({\tt x}^q-{\tt x})$. When is $g_{n,q}$ a permutation polynomial (PP) of $\Bbb F_{q^e}$? This turns out to be a challenging question with remarkable breath and depth, as shown in the predecessor of the present paper. We call a triple of positive integers $(n,e;q)$ {\em desirable} if $g_{n,q}$ is a PP of $\Bbb F_{q^e}$. In the present paper, we find many new classes of desirable triples whose corresponding PPs we…
Let $q$ be a prime power, $2\le r\le q$, and $f=a{\tt X}+{\tt X}^{r(q-1)+1}\in\Bbb F_{q^2}[{\tt X}]$, where $a\ne 0$. The conditions on $r,q,a$ that are necessary and sufficient for $f$ to be a permutation polynomial (PP) of ${\Bbb F}_{q^2}$ are not known. (Such conditions are known under an additional assumption that $a^{q+1}=1$.) In this paper, we prove the following: (i) If $f$ is a PP of ${\Bbb F}_{q^2}$, then $\text{gcd}(r,q+1)>1$ and $(-a)^{(q+1)/\text{gcd}(r,q+1)}\ne 1$. (ii) For a fixed $r>2$ and subject to the conditions that $q+1\equiv 0\pmod r$ and $a^{q+1}\ne 1$, there are only fin…
Let $q$ be a prime power, $\mathbb F_q$ be the finite field of order $q$ and $\mathbb F_q(x)$ be the field of rational functions over $\mathbb F_q$. In this paper we classify all rational functions $φ\in \mathbb F_q(x)$ of degree 3 that induce a permutation of $\mathbb P^1(\mathbb F_q)$. Our methods are constructive and the classification is explicit: we provide equations for the coefficients of the rational functions using Galois theoretical methods and Chebotarev Density Theorem for global function fields. As a corollary, we obtain that a permutation rational function of degree 3 permutes $\…
