Solution counts and sums of roots of unity (Q2161346)

Let \(p\) be a prime number and \(S\subseteq \mathbb{F}_p\) be an arbitrary set of size \(k\). Since the minimal polynomial of any \(\zeta \neq 1\), \(\zeta^p = 1\) is \(1+x+\dots+x^{p-1}\) we see that all Fourier coefficients of \(S\), that is \[ \hat{S} (\zeta) := \sum_{s\in S} \zeta^s\tag{1} \] do not vanish. In the paper under review the authors consider the question about finding universal lower bounds for absolute value of the sums above. Denoting the minimum as \(f'(k,p)\) they have found a connection between this problem and some questions about so-called perfect difference functions. More precisely, given a set \(S\subseteq \mathbb{F}_p\) the authors consider the functions \(F\) and \(f_a\) defined on \(S\), namely, \[ F(x) = F(s_1,\dots,s_{p-1}) = s_1 + 2s_2 + \dots + (p-1)s_{p-1} \] as well as \[ f_a (x) = f_q (s_1,\dots,\hat{s}_a, \dots, \hat{s}_{p-a}, \dots, s_{p-1})= F(x) - ax_a - (p-a) x_{p-a} \,, \] where \(1\le a \le \frac{p-1}{2}\). The proofs based on the following simple fact that the number solutions \(N_{S,F} (c)\) in \( (s_1,\dots, s_k) \in S^k\) to the equation \[ F(s_1,\dots,s_{p-1}) = c \] does not depend on nonzero \(c\). In other words, the number of the solutions forms a perfect difference function on \(c\). Denoting in a similar way the quantity \(N_{S,f_1} (c)\), the authors obtain the following Theorem. One has \[ \frac{1}{(p-1)f'(k,p)^2} \le \max_{S} \frac{N_{S,f_1} (0) - k^{p-3}/p}{N_{S,F}(0) - k^{p-1}/p} \le \frac{1}{f'(k,p)^{2}} \,. \] Also, they calculate \(\mathrm{Tr}_{\mathbb{Q}(\zeta)/\mathbb{Q}} (|\hat{S} (\zeta)|^{-2})\) (that is the sum \(\sum_{\zeta} |\hat{S} (\zeta)|^{-2}\)) in terms of the quantities \(N_{S,f_1} (0)\), \(N_{S,F}(0)\).