The distribution of quadratic residues and nonresidues in arithmetic progressions (Q2257497)

Let \(Q(R;a,q)\), respectively \(NQ(R;a,q)\) denote the number of integers \(n\) of the form \(n=a+rq\) with \(1\leq r\leq R\) with \(n\) a quadratic, respectively non-quadratic residue modulo \(p\). The author shows using Fourier analysis and the Pólya-Vinogradov inequality that, provided that \(A\leq q\) and \(q(R+1)<p\), one has \[ \sum_{a\leq A}Q(R;a,q)={RA\over 2}+O(\sqrt{pR}\log p), \] and that the same estimate holds with \(Q(R;a,q)\) replaced by \(NQ(R;a,q)\). Using Burgess's method he proves a sharper, but more technical, version of these two estimates as well.