On the number of solutions of the equation \(a_1x_1^{m_1} + \cdots +a_nx_n^{m_n} = bx_1 \cdots x_n\) in a finite field (Q2386441)

Let \(\mathbb F_{q}\) be a finite field with \(q=p^{s}\) elements, \(n \geq 2\) an integer, \(m_{1}, \ldots ,m_{n}\) positive integers dividing \(q-1\), and \(a_{1}, \ldots ,a_{n},b\) nonzero elements of \(\mathbb F_{q}\). The author considers the equation \[ a_{1}x_{1}^{m_{1}}+ \cdots +a_{n}x_{n}^{m_{n}}=bx_{1} \cdots x_{n}. \] and gives an explicit formulas for the number \(N_{q}\) of its solutions \((x_{1}, \dots x_{n}) \in\mathbb F_{q}^{n}\) in some special cases, under some restriction on \(m_{1}, \ldots , m_{n}\).