A Carlitz-von Staudt type theorem for finite rings (Q2418967)

Given a finite unital ring \(R\) we consider the \(k\)-th power-sums \[ \zeta_R(-k)=\sum_{r\in R} r^k. \] This values were already studied in the case of matrix rings by \textit{J. V. Brawley} et al. [Duke Math. J. 41, 9--24 (1974; Zbl 0282.15009)] and more recently by \textit{J. M. Grau} and \textit{A. M. Oller-Marcén} [Finite Fields Appl. 48, 10--19 (2017; Zbl 1386.13023)] for for finite commutative unital rings. In this paper the authors address the case when \(R\) is an arbitrary finite unital ring, thus providing a generalization of the aforementioned works and also resolving a recent conjecture by Fortuny Ayuso, Grau, Oller-Marcén and Rua [\textit{P. Fortuny} et al., Int. J. Algebra Comput. 27, No. 5, 547--560 (2017; Zbl 1372.15026)] on zeta values for matrix rings over finite commutative rings. The authors then proceed to further recast their main result via zeta values over polynomial rings, which leads them to a classification of the translation-invariant polynomials over a large class of finite commutative rings.