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First page of Resolvent Components of Completely Normal Elements and the Morgan-Mullen Conjecture

Resolvent Components of Completely Normal Elements and the Morgan-Mullen Conjecture

Florian Hellwig

math.NT Oct 27, 2026 · v1 cs.LO
The proof of the Morgan–Mullen conjecture for n>q and two corollaries, including all computer-assisted steps, is formalised in Lean 4 with Mathlib, with two cited results as axioms.
We study completely normal elements of $\mathbb{F}_{q^n}$ over $\mathbb{F}_q$, that is, elements that are normal over every intermediate field, through partial Lagrange resolvents. In these coordinates, complete normality splits into independent components, in a way closely related to Hachenberger's decomposition theory. Our main tool is a structure theorem for the components; together with a finite computation, it shows that every component has weight (the sum of the probabilities that its conditions fail) at most $3/4$, uniformly in $n$. Combined with the classical character-sum method, this gives an explicit sufficient criterion for the existence of a primitive completely normal element. We verify the criterion for all $n>q$ except $70$ pairs $(q,n)$, which we settle with explicit elements found by computer. Since the case $n\le q$ is due to Garefalakis and Kapetanakis, this confirms the conjecture of Morgan and Mullen (1996) that every $\mathbb{F}_{q^n}$ contains a primitive element that is completely normal over $\mathbb{F}_q$. The same estimates give two further results. First, Hachenberger's conjectured lower bound $(q-1)^{n'}q^{(p^a-1)n'}$ for the number of completely normal elements, where $p$ is the characteristic and $n=p^an'$ with $p\nmid n'$, holds for all pairs $(q,n)$; it was known for regular pairs. Second, primitivity and complete normality are asymptotically independent: as $q^n\to\infty$, the number of primitive completely normal elements is $(1+o(1))\,\varphi(q^n-1)/(q^n-1)$ times the number of completely normal elements (for fixed $n$ this was known). Our arguments for $n>q$ and for both further results, including every computer-assisted step, are formalised in Lean 4 with Mathlib; the formalisation takes the case $n\le q$ and an explicit bound of Rosser and Schoenfeld as axioms and relies on Lean's compiler and interpreter for the large computations.

The Morgan–Mullen conjecture (1996) asserts that every extension F_{q^n}/F_q contains a primitive element that is completely normal over F_q. Garefalakis and Kapetanakis had proved the case n ≤ q; the case n > q remained open in general.

Completely normal elements are studied through partial Lagrange resolvents, which split complete normality into independent components. A structure theorem bounds the weight of every component by 3/4, uniformly in n, and a product formula then gives a lower bound on the density of completely normal elements. Combined with the classical character-sum method, this yields an explicit sufficient criterion, which is verified analytically for large n and by computation for the remaining pairs. The 70 pairs where the criterion has too little margin are settled with explicit elements found by computer. Everything is formalised in Lean 4/Mathlib, taking the n ≤ q case and a Rosser–Schoenfeld bound as axioms and relying on Lean's compiler and interpreter for the large computations.

The Morgan–Mullen conjecture is confirmed for all (q,n). Hachenberger's conjectured lower bound on the number of completely normal elements holds for all pairs. Primitivity and complete normality are shown to be asymptotically independent as q^n → ∞.