Character sums in complex half-planes (Q2483713)

Let \(G\) be an abelian group and let \(\widehat{G}\) denote the dual group. For a finite subset \(A\subset G\) and a character \(\chi \in \widehat{G}\), let \(S_{A}(\chi)=\sum_{a\in A}\chi(a)\) be the Fourier coefficients of the indicator function of \(A\). Let \(P\) be a closed half-plane of the complex plane, containing zero. The authors show that either there exists a non-trivial character \(\chi \in \widehat{G}\) such that \(S_{A}(\chi)\in P\) or at least one of the following holds: i) \(A=\{0,g\}\), where \(g\in G\) is a non-zero element of odd order; ii) \(G\) is finite and \(A=G \setminus\{0,g\}\), where \(g\in G\) is a non-zero element of odd order; iii) \(A\cap(-A)=\{0\}\), and \(A\cup(-A)\) is a finite subgroup of \(G\); iv) \(G\) is finite, \(A\cup(-A)=G\setminus\{0\}\), and \(A\cap(-A)\) is the complement of a subgroup of \(G\). For cyclic groups of odd prime order and torsion-free abelian groups the authors show that the assumption that \(P\) is closed can be dropped. This yields additional exceptional cases. However, specific features of the groups allow them to put conditions i)--iv) in a more explicit form. Some consequences and applications of the main results are also given. A very interesting (in the reviewer's opinion) application given in this paper is the following: Let \(T(z)=\cos(2\pi a_{1}z)+\ldots+ \cos(2\pi a_{n}z)\), where \(n\geq 2\) and \(a_{1},\ldots, a_{n}\) are pairwise distinct integers. Then \(\min_{z\in [0,\,1)} T(z)<0\) unless \(n=2\) and \(a_{1}a_{2}=0\). And this, because the problem of estimating the minimum value of the polynomial \(T_{n}(z)\) in terms of \(n\) is one of the outstanding problems in the area and is far from being completely solved.