Note on Heath-Brown’s estimate for Heilbronn’s exponential sum (Q4243669)

Let \(p\) be a prime number, \(F_{p}\) the field of residues modulo \(p\), and \(r\) an element of \(F_{p}\). Denote by \(N_{r}\) the number of roots in \(F_{p} \setminus \{0,1\}\) of the polynomial \[ f(x)=x+ \frac{x^{2}}{2}+ \frac{x^{3}}{3}+ \cdots + \frac{x^{p-1}}{p-1}, \] and for every positive integer \(m \in {\mathbb Z}\) and any integer \(a\) coprime to \(p\), define Heilbronn's exponential sum \(S_{m}(a)\) by \[ S_{m}(a) = \sum_{x=1}^{p} \exp(2 \pi i \frac{a x^{m p}}{p^{2}}). \] Recently \textit{D. R. Heath-Brown} [Analytic number theory, Vol. 2, Birkhäuser, Prog. Math. 139, 451-463 (1996; Zbl 0857.11041)] proved that \(S_{1}(a) \ll p^{11/12}\), uniformly in \(a\). This estimate is a consequence of the following two results: \[ S_{1}(a) \ll p^{3/4} ( \max_{r} N_{r})^{1/4} \quad \text{and} \quad \max_{r} N_{r} \ll p^{2/3}. \] The author generalizes the first result and obtains the inequality \[ S_{m}(a) \ll (m,p-1)p^{3/4} ( \max_{r} N_{r})^{1/4}, \] which implies \[ S_{m}(a) \ll (m,p-1) p^{11/12}. \] Heath-Brown's proof of the second result, based on the use of the reviewer's method [\textit{S. A. Stepanov}, Izv. Akad. Nauk SSSR, Ser. Mat. 33, 1171-1181 (1969; Zbl 0192.58002)], is somewhat difficult and complicated. The author gives a much easier proof of this result. One must note that another simple proof of the upper bound \(N_{r} \leq 2 p^{2/3}\), based on the same ideas, was proposed earlier by \textit{D. A. Mit'kin} [Math. Notes 51, No. 6, 565-570 (1992); translation from Mat. Zametki 51, No. 6, 52-58 (1991; Zbl 0795.11062)].