Newton polygons of \(L\) functions associated with exponential sums of polynomials of degree four over finite fields (Q5927548)

This paper is devoted to the description of the Newton polygon associated to \(L(f(x),t)\), where \(f(x_1,\dots,x_n)\) is a polynomial of degree \(4\) over \(\mathbb{F}_q\) and \(L\) is the \(L\) function defined by \(\exp(\sum_{m=0}^{\infty}S^{\ast}_m(f){{t^m}\over m})\). The construction of the Newton polygon makes use of the method of Dwork and of appropriate estimates for Frobenius matrices. For univariate polynomials of degree four, the author gives a positive answer to a question of \textit{D. Wan} [Ann. Math. (2) 137, 249-293 (1993; Zbl 0799.11058)]. In this paper a new conjecture is proposed on the number \(N(d,p)\) of distinct Newton polygons associated to univariate polynomials of degree \(d\) over finite fields of characteristic \(p\).