A probabilistic approach to value sets of polynomials over finite fields

Abstract

In this paper we study the distribution of the size of the value set for a random polynomial with degree at most $q-1$ over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. We obtain the exact probability distribution and show that the number of missing values tends to a normal distribution as $q$ goes to infinity. We obtain these results through a study of a random $r$-th order cyclotomic mappings. A variation on the size of the union of some random sets is also considered.