On the distribution of the number of points on a family of curves over finite fields (Q401993)

Let \(p\) be a large prime, \(l\geq 2\) be a positive integer, \(m\geq 2\) be an integer relatively prime to \(l\) and let \(F_p[x] \) be the ring of polynomials over the Galois finite field \(F_p\). Let \(P(x)\in F_p[x] \) be a polynomial which is not a complete \(l'\)-th power for any \(l'\) for which \(\mathrm{gcd}(l',l)=1\). Let \(C\) be the curve defined by the equation \(y^l = P(X)\), and take the points on \(C\) to lie in the rectangle \([0,p-1]^2\). In this paper, the authors study the distribution of the number of points on \(C\) inside small rectangles among residue classes modulo \(m\) when the rectangle is moved around in \([0,p-1]^2\).