Counting Irreducible Polynomials of Degree r over Fqn and Generating Goppa Codes …

The problem of finding the number of irreducible monic polynomials of degree r over Fqn is considered in this paper. By considering the fact that an irreducible polynomial of degree r over Fqn has a root in a subfield Fqs of Fqnr if and only if (nr/s,r)=1, we show that Gauss’s formula for the number of monic irreducible polynomials can be derived by merely considering the lattice of subfields of Fqnr . We also use the lattice of subfields of Fqnr to determine if it is possible to generate a Goppa code using an element lying in a proper subfield of Fqnr