Existence of Primitive Pairs with Prescribed Traces over Finite Fields

Abstract: Let $F=\mathbb{F}_{q^m}$, $m>6$, $n$ a positive integer, and $f=p/q$ with $p$, $q$ co-prime irreducible polynomials in $F[x]$ and deg$(p)$ $+$ deg$(q)= n$. A sufficient condition has been obtained for the existence of primitive pairs $(\alpha, f(\alpha))$ in $F$ such that for any prescribed $a, b$ in $E=\mathbb{F}_q$, Tr$F/E (\alpha) = a$ and Tr$F/E (\alpha^{-1}) = b$. Further, for every positive integer $n$, such a pair definitely exists for large enough $(q,m)$. The case $n = 2$ is dealt separately and proved that such a pair exists for all $(q,m)$ apart from at most $64$ choices.