Estimates for Character Sums with Various Convolutions

Let $p$ be a prime number, $\mathbb{F}_{p^n}$ be the finite field of order $p^n$, and $\{\omega_1,\ldots\omega_n\}$ be a basis of $\mathbb{F}_{p^n}$ over $\mathbb{F}_p$. Let, further, $N_i,H_i$ be integers such that $1\leq H_i\leq p$, $\,\,i=1,\ldots,n$. Define $n$-dimensional parallelepiped $B\subseteq\mathbb{F}_{p^n}$ as follows: $$B=\left\{\sum_{i=1}^nx_i\omega_i \,:\, N_i+1\leq x_i\leq N_i+H_i, \,\,\, 1\leq i\leq n\right\}. $$ Let $n\in\{2,3\}$, $\chi$ be a nontrivial mul...

Let $p$ be an odd prime. Using I. M. Vinogradov's bilinear estimate, we present an elementary approach to estimate nontrivially the character sum $$ \sum_{x\in H}\chi(x+a),\qquad a\in\Bbb F_p^*, $$ where $H<\Bbb F_p^*$ is a multiplicative subgroup in finite prime field $\Bbb F_p$. Some interesting mean-value estimates are also provided.

We improve a recent result of B. Hanson (2015) on multiplicative character sums with expressions of the type $a + b +cd$ and variables $a,b,c,d$ from four distinct sets of a finite field. We also consider similar sums with $a + b(c+d)$. These bounds rely on some recent advances in additive combinatorics.

We estimate double sums $$ S_\chi(a, I, G) = \sum_{x \in I} \sum_{\lambda \in G} \chi(x + a\lambda), \qquad 1\le a < p-1, $$ with a multiplicative character $\chi$ modulo $p$ where $I= \{1,\ldots, H\}$ and $G$ is a subgroup of order $T$ of the multiplicative group of the finite field of $p$ elements. A nontrivial upper bound on $S_\chi(a, I, G)$ can be derived from the Burgess bound if $H \ge p^{1/4+\varepsilon}$ and from some standard elementary arguments if $T \ge p^{1/2+\v...

This article is an expanded version of the talk given by the first author at the conference "Exponential sums over finite fields and applications" (ETH, Z\"urich, November, 2010). We state some conjectures on archimedian and $p$-adic estimates for multiplicative character sums over smooth projective varieties. We also review some of the results of J. Dollarhide, which formed the basis for these conjectures. Applying his results, we prove one of the conjectures when the smooth...

In the paper we obtain new estimates for binary and ternary sums of multiplicative characters with additive convolutions of characteristic functions of sets, having small additive doubling. In particular, we improve a result of M.-C. Chang. The proof uses Croot-Sisask almost periodicity lemma.

Given a finite field $\mathbb F_q$, a positive integer $n$ and an $\mathbb F_q$-affine space $\mathcal A\subseteq \mathbb F_{q^n}$, we provide a new bound on the sum $\sum_{a\in \mathcal A}\chi(a)$, where $\chi$ a multiplicative character of $\mathbb F_{q^n}$. We focus on the applicability of our estimate to results regarding the existence of special primitive elements in $\mathbb F_{q^n}$. In particular, we obtain substantial improvements on previous works.

A method of estimating sums of multiplicative functions braided with Dirichlet characters is demonstrated, leading to a taxonomy of the characters for which such sums are large.

We prove new bounds for sums of multiplicative characters over sums of set with small doubling and applying this result we break the square--root barrier in a problem of Balog concerning products of differences in a field of prime order.

A few elementary estimates of a basic character sum over the prime numbers are derived here. These estimates are nontrivial for character sums modulo large q. In addition, an omega result for character sums over the primes is also included.