Problem

Source: Romania National Olympiad 2023

Tags: polynomial, field, finite fields, superior algebra



Let $p$ be a prime number, $n$ a natural number which is not divisible by $p$, and $\mathbb{K}$ is a finite field, with $char(K) = p, |K| = p^n, 1_{\mathbb{K}}$ unity element and $\widehat{0} = 0_{\mathbb{K}}.$ For every $m \in \mathbb{N}^{*}$ we note $ \widehat{m} = \underbrace{1_{\mathbb{K}} + 1_{\mathbb{K}} + \ldots + 1_{\mathbb{K}}}_{m \text{ times}} $ and define the polynomial \[ f_m = \sum_{k = 0}^{m} (-1)^{m - k} \widehat{\binom{m}{k}} X^{p^k} \in \mathbb{K}[X]. \] a) Show that roots of $f_1$ are $ \left\{ \widehat{k} | k \in \{0,1,2, \ldots , p - 1 \} \right\}$. b) Let $m \in \mathbb{N}^{*}.$ Determine the set of roots from $\mathbb{K}$ of polynomial $f_{m}.$