The first slope case of Wan's conjecture. (Q1867454)

Let \(d\geq 2\) and \(p\) a prime which does not divide \(d\). For \(f(x)\in {\mathbb Z}_p\cap{\mathbb Q}[x]\), let \(NP_1(f\bmod p)\) denote the first slope of the Newton polygon of the \(L\)-function of the exponential sum \[ \sum_{x\in{\mathbb F}_{p^l}}\zeta_p^{\text{Tr}_{{\mathbb F}_{p^l}/{\mathbb F}_p}(f(x))}. \] The authors prove that there exists a Zariski dense open subset \(\mathcal U\) in the space \({\mathbb A}^d\) of degree \(d\) monic polynomials over \(\mathbb Q\) such that for all \(f(x)\in {\mathcal U}\) we have \(\lim_{p\to\infty}NP_1( f\bmod p)=\frac{1}{d}\). This is part of a conjecture of Wan which asserts that there exists a Zariski dense open subset \(\mathcal U\) in \({\mathbb A}^d\) such that for all \(f(x)\in {\mathcal U}\) we have \(\lim_{p\to\infty}NP( f\bmod p)=HP(f)\), where \(NP( f\bmod p)\) is the Newton polygon of \(f\bmod p\) and \(HP(f)\) is the Hodge polygon.