Summation identities and special values of hypergeometric series in the \(p\)-adic setting (Q2344337)

The number of rational points of varieties over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}\) equals, by the orthogonality of characters on the field \(\mathbb{F}\), a \textit{character sum} or more specifically a Gauss sum. In [\textit{J. Greene}, Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 301, 77--101 (1987; Zbl 0629.12017)], a \textit{hypergeometric function} over a finite field \(\mathbb{F}\) was defined in analogy to that over the complex numbers \(\mathbb{C}\), and some transformation laws over \(\mathbb{F}\), analogous to those over \(\mathbb{C}\), were shown to hold. These transformation laws made way to an elegant calculation of the value of a character sum that counts the points of the surface \((x^2+1)(y^2+1)(x^2+y^2)=z^2\) over a finite field (see [\textit{J. Greene} and \textit{D. Stanton}, J. Number Theory 23, 136--148 (1986; Zbl 0588.10038)]). This value was conjectured by Evans and the character sum arises when counting how often a difference \(i-j\) of two numbers \(i,j\) in \(\mathbb{F}\) is a square . Since then, other character sums, especially those counting points of (hyper)elliptic curves over finite fields by Gauss sums, have been expressed as special values of the hypergeometric function over a finite field (see [\textit{C. Lennon}, Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 139, No. 6, 1931--1938 (2011; Zbl 1281.11104)]). The main tool to obtain these expressions is the \textit{Hasse-Davenport relation} expressing the product \(\prod_\chi G(\chi \psi)\) of the Gauss sums over all characters of order \(m\) on \(\mathbb{F}^*\), twisted by a character \(\psi\) (of arbitrary order on \(\mathbb{F}^*\)), as multiple of \(\prod_\chi G(\chi)\). However, this relation requires the congruence condition \(p^e \equiv 1 \mod m\) for \(p^e = \# \mathbb{F}\). In previous works, there were also congruence conditions such as \(p^2 \equiv 1 \mod 12\) (see [Lennon, loc. cit.]) for \(p\), in order to calculate the number of points of an elliptic curve over a finite field as a special value of the hypergeometric function over a finite field. To surmount these congruence restrictions on powers of \(p\), a \textit{\(p\)-adic hypergeometric function} was defined in [the last author, Pac. J. Math. 261, No. 1, 219--236 (2013; Zbl 1296.11079)] that arises after having initially followed the computations of [Lennon, loc. cit.], and then instead of the Hasse-Davenport relation, one uses the \textit{Gross-Koblitz formula} expressing a Gauss sum as the (normalized) product of values of the \(p\)-adic Gamma function. Afterwards, the number of zeroes of the polynomial \(x^d + a x^{d-1} + b\) (and \(x^d + ax + b\)) over a finite field has been expressed as special values of the \(p\)-adic hypergeometric function in [the first two authors, Finite Fields Appl. 29, 89--105 (2014; Zbl 1296.11075)]. The Hasse-Davenport relation is reemployed hier to calculate a different expression of this number of zeroes as special value of the \(p\)-adic hypergeometric function. The equalities between these two different special values of the \(p\)-adic hypergeometric function are then identified as ``hypergeometric type summation identities''. It would have been useful for the non-specialist a note on which the classic ``hypergeometric type summation identities'' and the \(p\)-adic identities are compared, and an application of these on character sum formulas.