Exercise 7.10

If K ⊃ F be finite fields and [ K : F ] = 2 . For β ∈ K , show that β 1 + q ∈ F and moreover that every element in F is of the form β 1 + q for some β ∈ K .

Answers

Proof. If β = 0 , β 1 + q = 0 ∈ F , and if β ∈ K ∗ , β q 2 − 1 = 1 , so ( β 1 + q ) q − 1 = 1 , thus β 1 + q ∈ F (Prop. 7.1.1, Corollary 1).

Let g be a generator of K ∗ . Then K ∗ = { 1 , g , g 2 , ⋯ , g q 2 − 2 } .

For every integer k ∈ ℤ ,

g k ∈ F ∗ ⟺ ( g k ) q − 1 = 1 ⟺ g k ( q − 1 ) = 1 ⟺ q 2 − 1 ∣ k ( q − 1 ) ⟺ q + 1 ∣ k .

Thus F ∗ = { 1 , g q + 1 , g 2 ( q + 1 ) , ⋯ , g ( q − 2 ) ( q + 1 ) } . If α ∈ F ∗ , there exists i , 0 ≤ i ≤ q − 1 , such that α = g i ( q + 1 ) . If we write β = g i , then α = β 1 + q (and for α = 0 , we take β = 0 ).

Conclusion: if K is a quadratic extension of F ( F , K finite fields), every element in F is of the form β 1 + q for some β ∈ K . □

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2022-07-19 00:00
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