On the general \(k\)-th Kloosterman sums and its fourth power mean (Q1430002)

Let \(k\geq 1\) and let \(\chi\) be a character modulo \(q\). Define \[ S(m,n,k;\chi,q)= \sum^q_{a=1} \chi(a)\exp\Biggl({2\pi i\over q}(ma^k+ n\overline a^k)\Biggr), \] where \(a\overline a\equiv 1\pmod q\). In the case \(k=1\), \(\chi= \chi_0\), that is for the classical Kloosterman sum, \textit{H. Iwaniec} [Topics in classical automorphic forms (Graduate Studies in Mathematics 17, American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI) (1967; Zbl 0905.11023)] found that \[ \sum^{p-1}_{a= 1} S(m,1,1; \chi_0,p)^4= 2p^3- 3p^2- 3p- 1 \] for \(p\) prime. The present paper shows that \[ \begin{multlined} \sum_{\chi\pmod q}\;\sum^q_{m=1}| S(m, n,k; \chi,q)|^4=\\ \phi^2(q) q^2 \prod_{p^e\parallel q} (k,p-1)^2 \Biggl(e- 1+ {2(p- 1)\over(k,p-1)p}+ {e\over p^e}- {2(p^e- 1)\over p^e(p-1)}\Biggr),\end{multlined} \] whenever \((nk,q)= 1\).