I'd like to find if possible the orders possible for $1-\gamma$ given a $\gamma\in\mathbb{F}_q$ of given order $\mathcal{o}$ (where $q=p^f$).
Which is clear is that these order have the same degree (degree: minimal $f$ such that $\mathcal{o}\mid p^f-1$ ie the degree of the minimal polynomial of $\gamma$ ie the minimal $f$ such that $\gamma$ is in $\mathbb{F}_{p^f}$).
More precisely if $\mu$ is the minimal polynomial of $\gamma$ on $\mathbb{F}_p$ the minimal polynomial of $1-\gamma$ is $\mu(1-X)$. So it only depends of the conjugacy class of $\gamma$ (that can be seen with Frobenius too).
For example with $\gamma\in\mathbb{F}_9\setminus\mathbb{F}_3$:
- the $\gamma$ of order 8 with minimal polynomial $\Phi_{8,1}=\mu=X^2-X-1$ have $1-\gamma$ of same order because $\mu(1-X)=\mu(X)$;
- the $\gamma$ of order 8 with minimal polynomial $\Phi_{8,2}=\mu=X^2+X-1$ have $1-\gamma$ of order 4 because $\mu(1-X)=X^2+1=\Phi_4(X)$;
- the $\gamma$ of order 4 with minimal polynomial $\Phi_4=X^2+1$ have $1-\gamma$ of order 8 because for involutive reasons $\Phi_4(1-X)=\Phi_{8,2}(X)$.
As we see here there is more generally an action of the affine transformation (and even of $\operatorname{Gl}_2(\mathbb{F}_q)$) on the conjugacy class of $\mathbb{F}_q$ elements which respect the degree.
I have seen on the net studies of the impact on the order of $\gamma\mapsto\gamma+1/\gamma$ (order of related elements) but I can't find anything on the impact of $\gamma\mapsto1-\gamma$.
\mathcal o
looks the same as $o$o
, so you might want to choose some other symbol. $\endgroup$