On some dynamical systems in finite fields and residue rings (Q2372755)

Recently, V. I. Arnold asked some questions about the uniformity of distribution properties of certain dynamical systems in a finite field. In this paper, the author gives a short survey on the applications of classical bounds on exponential sums to ergodic properties of the dynamical systems similar to the ones arising in Arnold's investigations. He confirms some of Arnold's conjectures, shows that some others are false or need some fine tuning and finally that some of them are known. The main result of the paper is Theorem 3.4. To state it, for coprime integers \(g\) and \(\ell\) put \(t_g(\ell)\) for the order of \(g\) in the multiplicative group modulo \(\ell\). Let \[ T_g(L)={{1}\over {L}}\sum_{{\ell=1}\atop {\text{ gcd}(g,\ell)=1}}^L t_g(\ell). \] It is then shown in Theorem 3.4 that under the Extended Riemann Hypothesis for every positive integer \(g\) which is not a square, there exists a positive constant \(C(g)\) depending on \(g\) such that \[ T_g(L)\geq {{L}\over {\log L}}\exp\Bigl(C(g)(\log\log\log L)^{3/2}\Bigr). \]