Approximating the Number of Irreducible Polynomials over \(F_{2}\) with Several Prescribed Coefficients

Let \( N(n, t_1, \ldots, t_r) \) be the number of irreducible polynomials of degree \( n \) over the finite field \( \mathbb{F}_2 \) where the coefficients of the terms \( x^{n-1}, \ldots, x^{n-r} \) are prescribed. Finding the exact values for the numbers \( N(n, t_1, \ldots, t_r) \) for \( r \geq 4 \) seems difficult. In this paper, we give an approximation for these numbers. We treat in detail the case \( N(n, t_1, \ldots, t_4) \), and we state the approximation in the general case. We experimentally show how good our approximation is.