Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / ii / Paper 4 / 18H / c / Solution

A finite field ${\mathbb{F}}_q$ contains a primitive tenth root exactly when $10\mid (q-1)$. Its multiplicative group is cyclic: the exponent of a finite abelian subgroup of a field is attained by an element, by combining its prime-power components; since every element is a root of $X^e-1$, the polynomial root bound forces the group order to be at most that exponent, hence equal to it. A cyclic group contains an element of order ten exactly when ten divides its order.

Over ${\mathbb{F}}_q$, the conjugates of $\xi$ are its Frobenius automorphism orbit $\xi ,{\xi }^q,{\xi }^{q^2},\dots$. The extension degree is the least $d>0$ with $q^d\equiv 1(\mathrm{mod}10)$. For $q=3$ this order is four, for $q=11$ it is one, and for $q=19$ it is two. Therefore