English

Shanks' bias in function fields

Number Theory 2025-12-22 v2

Abstract

We study the function field analogue of Shanks bias. For Liouville function λ(f)\lambda(f), we compare the number of monic polynomials ff with λ(f)χm(f)=1\lambda(f) \chi_m(f) = 1 and λ(f)χm(f)=1\lambda(f) \chi_m(f) = -1 for a nontrivial quadratic character χm\chi_m modulo a monic square-free polynomial mm over a finite field. Under Grand Simplicity Hypothesis (GSH) for LL-functions, we prove that λχm\lambda \cdot \chi_m is biased towards +1+1. We also give some examples where GSH is violated.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.16142,
  title  = {Shanks' bias in function fields},
  author = {Seewoo Lee},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.16142},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Accepted version, to appear in Journal de Th\'eorie des Nombres de Bordeaux

R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:46:07.590Z