On a multilinear character sum of Burgess (Q2269655)

Let \(p\) be a sufficiently large prime and \((L_i)_{1\leq i\leq n}\) a nondegenerate system of linear forms in \(n\) variables over \(\mathbb F_p\). Then the authors prove a nontrivial estimate on the incomplete character sum \[ S=\sum _{x\in \prod _{i=1}^n [a_i,a_i+H]} \mathcal X \left(\prod _{J=1}^n L_j(x) \right), \] provided \(H > p^{\frac 14 +\varepsilon}\). Theorem: Under the assumptions above, we have \(| S|<p^{-\delta} H^n\) with \(\delta=\delta_n(\varepsilon)\). The estimate is uniform in \((L_i)_{1\leq i\leq n}\). This generalizes the classical result \(| S|<p^{-\delta} H\) of \textit{D. A. Burgess} for \(n=1\), \(H > p^{\frac 14 +\varepsilon }\) [Mathematika 4, 106--112 (1957; Zbl 0081.27101)] and for \(n=2\), \(H>p^{\frac 13+\varepsilon}\) and in the general case for \(H>p^{\frac 12-\frac 1{2(n+1)}+\varepsilon}\) [Acta Arith. 18, 263--271 (1971; Zbl 0224.10048)]. The second author [Geom. Funct. Anal. 19, No. 4, 1001--1016 (2009; Zbl 1207.11083)] also obtained Burgess' classical result for \(n=2\). The authors' method compared with Chang's paper cited above is quite different. The present approach is based on the ``shifted product'' technique and an estimate on ``multiplicative energy'' which is a new ingredient originating from work of \textit{S. V. Konyagin} [Math. Notes 88, No. 4, 503--515 (2010); translation from Mat. Zametki 88, No. 4, 529--542 (2010; Zbl 1261.11085)] on the Davenport-Lewis problem on incomplete character sums over boxes in fields \(\mathbb F_{p^n}\).