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Binary Quartic Forms Over Fp, Daniel Thomas Kamenetsky

Theses and Dissertations

Let Vp denote the five dimensional vector space of binary quartic forms over the finite field Fp, with p a prime greater than 3. There is a natural action of the group GL1(Fp)×GL2(Fp) on Vp. This action partitions Vp into orbits, the number of which increases with p. In this thesis, we determine explicitly, for a given p, the number of orbits under the action of GL1(Fp) × GL2(Fp) on Vp. Moreover, we determine the size of each orbit and the general structure of the forms each orbit contains. We also introduce an application of understanding these orbits to the …