QUIGS SEMINAR: Polynomials over finite fields: an index approach

SPEAKER:  Steven (Qiang) Wang, Professor, School of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton University

ABSTRACT:

The degree of a polynomial is an important parameter to study many problems on polynomials over finite fields.  Recently, a new notion of the  index of a polynomial over a finite field  is  introduced  to study the distribution of permutation polynomials over finite fields. This parameter also turns out to be very useful in studying  value set size bounds, character sum bounds,  among others.    In this talk I will introduce this new index approach to study polynomials over finite fields and report some recent results on several specific problems.