Airey sums, Kloosterman sums, and Salié sums (Q1363103)

In 1993 \textit{W. Duke} and \textit{H. Iwaniec} proved that a certain class of cubic exponential sums can be expressed through Kloosterman sums twisted by a cubic character [Contemp. Math. 143, 255-258 (1993; Zbl 0792.11029)]. Their proof made use of one of the Davenport-Hasse theorems. In this paper, the author gives a simple, direct proof of a generalization of this identity, using only basic properties of finite fields. Let \(T_n(x)\) be the integral polynomial such that \(T_n(x+ x^{-1})= x^n+ x^{-n}\). Let \(n\) be odd; let \(q\equiv 1\pmod n\), let \(\psi\) be a non-trivial additive character on \(\mathbb{F}_q\) and let \(\chi\) be a multiplicative character of precise order \(n\) on \(\mathbb{F}^\times_q\). Then one has \[ 2\sum_x \psi(T_n(x))= \sum_i \sum_y \chi(y)^i\psi(y+ y^{-1}), \] where \(x\) is summed over \(\mathbb{F}_q\), \(y\) over \(\mathbb{F}^\times_q\) and \(i= 1,2,\dots,n-1\).