English

Mixed character sums modulo prime powers

Number Theory 2026-04-06 v1

Abstract

We obtain explicit estimates for the mixed character sum S=S(χ,g,f,pm)=x=1pmχ(g(x))epm(f(x))S= S(\chi,g,f,p^m) = \sum_{x=1}^{p^m} \chi (g(x)) e_{p^m}(f(x)), where pmp^m is a prime power, χ\chi is a multiplicative character mod pmp^m and f,gf,g are rational functions over Q\mathbb Q. Let f=f+/ff=f_+/f_-, g=g+/gg=g_+/g_- in reduced form, and set D=deg(f)+Z1D=\text{deg}(f)+Z-1 where ZZ is the number of distinct complex zeros of fg+gf_-g_+g_-, and Δ=deg(f)+deg(g)\Delta= \text{deg}(f)+\text{deg}(g) for polynomial f,gf,g, Δ=2(deg(f)+deg(g))\Delta=2(\text{deg}(f)+\text{deg}(g)) otherwise. We show for example that for odd pp, any non-degenerate sum has S34/3pm(11D)|S|\le 3^{4/3}\, p^{m(1-\frac 1D)} if degp(f)1\text{deg}_p(f) \ge 1, and S34/3pm(11Δ)|S| \le 3^{4/3}\, p^{m(1-\frac 1\Delta)} if degp(g)1\text{deg}_p(g) \ge 1. Analogous bounds are given for degenerate sums.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2604.02614,
  title  = {Mixed character sums modulo prime powers},
  author = {Todd Cochrane and Andrew Granville},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2604.02614},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:52:09.918Z