Date of Submission
Spring 2014
Academic Programs and Concentrations
Mathematics
Project Advisor 1
John Cullinan
Abstract/Artist's Statement
Suppose we wanted to count the number of solutions to an equation of a conic section over a finite field of prime power order $p^n$. We see that there are only $p^n$ solutions for a linear equation. It is observed that the number of solutions to equations of certain conic sections over any finite field of prime power order depends on the congruency of the prime. This project explores the number of solutions to equations of different conic sections such as parabolas, hyperbolas, circles, and ellipses over any finite field of prime order. We also encode this information into a generating function.
Open Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Coles, Zena Charlie, "Counting Points on Conics Over Finite Fields" (2014). Senior Projects Spring 2014. 178.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2014/178
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