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Finite Field Dynamics: Exploring Isomorphic Graphs And Cycles Of Length P, Catlain Mccarthy

Honors Program Theses and Projects

For this project, we explore nite eld dynamics and the various patterns of cycles of elements that emerge from the manipulation of a function and eld. Given a function f : Fp 􀀀! Fp, we can create a directed graph with an edge from c to f(c) for all c 2 Fp. We especially consider polynomials of the form f(x) = xd + c and investigate how varying the values of d and c affect the cycles in a given nite eld, Fp. We analyze data to look for graphs that result in cycles of length p. We also identify …