On the fourth power mean of the character sums over short intervals (Q856831): Difference between revisions

Let \(q \geq 5\) be an odd integer. The authors obtain an asymptotic formula for the mean value \(\sum^{**} | \sum_{1\leq a < q/8} \chi(a)| ^4\), where \(\sum^{**}\) denotes the summation over all primitive Dirichlet characters \(\chi\) modulo \(q\) with the property that \(\chi(-1)=-1\). The formula consists of four main terms, each of the shape \(q^2J(q)C_i(q)\), where \(J(q)\) is the number of primitive characters modulo \(q\) and where each \(C_i(q)\) is given in terms of certain finite or infinite products over primes dividing or not dividing \(q\). The error term in the formula is \(O(q^{2+\varepsilon})\). The proof involves expressing the inner character sum in terms of various \(L\)-functions and then obtaining asymptotic formulas for \(\sum^{**} | L(1,\bar{\chi}\chi_8)| ^4\) and for 14 different mixed mean values of a shape similar to \(\sum^{**} \chi(2^m)L^2(1,\bar{\chi}) L(1,\chi) L(1,\chi \chi_8)\), where \(\chi_8\) denotes the primitive character modulo 8.