Related papers: Polynomial quotients: Interpolation, value sets an…

For a prime $p$ and an integer $u$ with $\gcd(u,p)=1$, we define Fermat quotients by the conditions $$ q_p(u) \equiv \frac{u^{p-1} -1}{p} \pmod p, \qquad 0 \le q_p(u) \le p-1. $$ D. R. Heath-Brown has given a bound of exponential sums with…

We investigate the $k$-error linear complexity of $p^2$-periodic binary sequences defined from the polynomial quotients (including the well-studied Fermat quotients), which is defined by $$ q_{p,w}(u)\equiv \frac{u^w-u^{wp}}{p} \bmod p ~…

We prove that all polynomials in several variables can be decomposed as the sums of $k$th powers: $P(x_1,...,x_n) = Q_1(x_1,...,x_n)^k+...+ Q_s(x_1,...,x_n)^k$, provided that elements of the base field are themselves sums of $k$th powers.…

We continue to investigate binary sequence $(f_u)$ over $\{0,1\}$ defined by $(-1)^{f_u}=\left(\frac{(u^w-u^{wp})/p}{p}\right)$ for integers $u\ge 0$, where $\left(\frac{\cdot}{p}\right)$ is the Legendre symbol and we restrict…

Let $f\in \mathbb{Q}(x)$ be a non-constant rational function. We consider "Waring's Problem for $f(x)$," i.e., whether every element of $\bbq$ can be written as a bounded sum of elements of $\{f(a)\mid a\in \mathbb{Q}\}$. For rational…

Most integers are composite and most univariate polynomials over a finite field are reducible. The Prime Number Theorem and a classical result of Gau{\ss} count the remaining ones, approximately and exactly. For polynomials in two or more…

We consider polynomial equations, or systems of polynomial equations, with integer coefficients, modulo prime numbers $p$. We offer an elementary approach based on a counting method. The outcome is a weak form of the Lang-Weil lower bound…

Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ be a finite field with $q=p^e$ elements, where $p$ is a prime and $e\geq 1$ is an integer. Let $\ell<n$ be two positive integers. Fix a monic polynomial $u(x)=x^n +u_{n-1}x^{n-1}+\cdots +u_{\ell+1}x^{\ell+1} \in…

Let $\mathbb{F}_q[t]$ be the ring of polynomials over $\mathbb{F}_q$, the finite field of $q$ elements, and let $p$ be the characteristic of $\mathbb{F}_q$. We denote $\widetilde{G}_q(k)$ to be the least integer $t_0$ with the property that…

The Fermat quotient $q_p(a):=(a^{p-1}-1)/p$, for prime $p\nmid a$, and the Wilson quotient $w_p:=((p-1)!+1)/p$ are integers. If $p\mid w_p,$ then $p$ is a Wilson prime. For odd $p,$ Lerch proved that $(\sum_{a=1}^{p-1} q_p(a) - w_p)/p$ is…

Let $n\in\mathbb{N}$ be fixed, $Q>1$ be a real parameter and $\mathcal{P}_n(Q)$ denote the set of polynomials over $\mathbb{Z}$ of degree $n$ and height at most $Q$. In this paper we investigate the following counting problems regarding…

Let $F$ be an algebraically closed field of characteristic $p>0$. In this paper we develop methods to represent arbitrary elements of $F[t]$ as sums of perfect $k$-th powers for any $k\in\mathbb{N}$ relatively prime to $p$. Using these…

Let $p$ be a prime, and $N$ be a positive integer not divisible by $p$. Denote by ${\rm ord}_N(p)$ the multiplicative order of $p$ modulo $N$. Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ represent the finite field of order $q=p^{{\rm ord}_N(p)}$. For $a,…

Let $\mathbb{F}_q$ denote the finite field of characteristic $p$ and order $q$. Let $\mathbb{Z}_q$ denote the unramified extension of the $p$-adic rational integers $\mathbb{Z}_p$ with residue field $\mathbb{F}_q$. Given two positive…

The Waring function $g(k,q)$ measures the difficulty of Waring's problem for $k$th powers in the field of $q$ elements. Its calculation seems to be difficult, and many partial results have been published, notably upper bounds for certain…

For a large prime $p$, and a polynomial $f$ over a finite field $F_p$ of $p$ elements, we obtain a lower bound on the size of the multiplicative subgroup of $F_p^*$ containing $H\ge 1$ consecutive values $f(x)$, $x = u+1, \ldots, u+H$,…

For an odd prime $p$, we say $f(X) \in {\mathbb F}_p[X]$ computes square roots in $\mathbb F_p$ if, for all nonzero perfect squares $a \in \mathbb F_p$, we have $f(a)^2 = a$. When $p \equiv 3 \mod 4$, it is well known that $f(X) =…

We investigate the $p$-adic valuation of Weil sums of the form $W_{F,d}(a)=\sum_{x \in F} \psi(x^d -a x)$, where $F$ is a finite field of characteristic $p$, $\psi$ is the canonical additive character of $F$, the exponent $d$ is relatively…

Let $p$ be a prime, and let $n>0$ and $r$ be integers. In this paper we study Fleck's quotient $$F_p(n,r)=(-p)^{-\lfloor(n-1)/(p-1)\rfloor} \sum_{k=r(mod p)}\binom {n}{k}(-1)^k\in Z.$$ We determine $F_p(n,r)$ mod $p$ completely by certain…

Fix an odd prime $p$. If $r$ is a positive integer and $f$ a polynomial with coefficients in $\mathbb{F}_{p^r}$, let $P_{p,r}(f)$ be the proportion of $\mathbb{P}^1(\mathbb{F}_{p^r})$ that is periodic with respect to $f$. We show that as…