A note on the stability of trinomials over finite fields

Abstract

A polynomial $f(x)$ over a field $K$ is called stable if all of its iterates are irreducible over $K$. In this paper we study the stability of trinomials over finite fields. Specially, we show that if $f(x)$ is a trinomial of even degree over the binary field $\mathbb{F}_2$, then $f(x)$ is not stable. We prove a similar result for some families of monic trinomials over finite fields of odd characteristic. These results are obtained towards the resolution of a conjecture on the instability of polynomials over finite fields whose degrees are divisible by the characteristic of the underlying field.