Primitive elements and $k$-th powers in finite fields

Abstract

Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be the finite field of $q$ elements, and let $k\mid q-1$ be a positive integer. Let $f(x)=ax^2+bx+c$ be a quadratic polynomial in $\mathbb{F}_q[x]$ with $b^2-4ac\ne0$. In this paper, we show that if $q>\max\{e^{e^3},(2k)^6\}$, then there is a primitive element $g$ of $\mathbb{F}_q$ such that $f(g)\in\mathbb{F}_q^{\times k}=\{x^k: x\in\mathbb{F}_q\setminus\{0\}\}$. Moreover, we shall confirm a conjecture posed by Sun.