Constructing irreducible polynomials recursively with a reverse composition method

Abstract

We suggest a construction of the minimal polynomial $m_{β^k}$ of $β^k\in \mathbb F_{q^n}$ over $\mathbb F_q$ from the minimal polynomial $f= m_β$ for all positive integers $k$ whose prime factors divide $q-1$. The computations of our construction are carried out in $\mathbb F_q$. The key observation leading to our construction is that for $k \mid q-1$ holds $$m_{β^k}(X^k) = \prod_{j=1}^{\frac kt} ζ_k^{-jn} f (ζ_k^j X),$$ where $t= \max \{m\mid \gcd(n,k): f (X) = g (X^m), g \in \mathbb F_q[X]\}$ and $ζ_{k}$ is a primitive $k$-th root of unity in $\mathbb F_q$. The construction allows to construct a large number of irreducible polynomials over $\mathbb F_q$ of the same degree. Since different applications require different properties, this large number allows the selection of the candidates with the desired properties.