Let $f=ax+b{x}^q+x^{2q-1}{\in }_q\left[x\right]$. We find explicit conditions on a and b that are necessary and sufficient for f to be a permutation polynomial of ${}_{q²}$. This result allows us to solve a related problem: Let $g_{n,q}{\in }_p\left[x\right]$ (n ≥ 0, $p=cha{r}_q$) be the polynomial defined by the functional equation ${\sum }_{c{\in }_q}{(x+c)}^n=g_{n,q}(x^q-x)$. We determine all n of the form $n=q^{\alpha }-q^{\beta }-1$, α > β ≥ 0, for which $g_{n,q}$ is a permutation polynomial of ${}_{q²}$.

We prove a quantitative version of a result of Furstenberg [20] and Deligne [14] stating that the diagonal of a multivariate algebraic power series with coefficients in a field of positive characteristic is algebraic. As a consequence, we obtain that for every prime $p$ the reduction modulo $p$ of the diagonal of a multivariate algebraic power series $f$ with integer coefficients is an algebraic power series of degree at most $p^A$ and height at most $A{p}^A$, where $A$ is an effective constant that only depends on...

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 11T06, 13P10.A theorem of S.D. Cohen gives a characterization for Dickson polynomials of the second kind that permutes the elements of a finite field of cardinality the square of the characteristic. Here, a different proof is presented for this result.Research supported by the CERES program of the Ministry of Education, Research and Youth, contract nr. 39/2002.

The purpose of the present article is the study of duals of functional codes on algebraic surfaces. We give a direct geometrical description of them, using differentials. Even if this description is less trivial, it can be regarded as a natural extension to surfaces of the result asserting that the dual of a functional code $C_L(D,G)$ on a curve is the differential code $C_{\Omega }(D,G)$ . We study the parameters of such codes and state a lower bound for their minimum distance. Using this bound, one can study some examples...