Generalization of a problem of Lehmer. (Q5937275)

Let \(p\) be a prime number. For any \(a\in\{1,2,\dots,p-1\}\) let \(\overline a\in \{1,2,\dots,p-1\}\) be such that \(a\overline a\equiv 1\pmod p\). A question raised by D. H. Lehmer asks about the number \(r(p)\) of those \(a\) for which \(a\) and \(\overline a\) are of opposite parity. The problem was nicely handled by \textit{W. Zhang} in [Compos. Math. 86, 307--316 (1993; Zbl 0783.11002); Compos. Math. 91, 47--56 (1994; Zbl 0798.11001); Acta Arith. 68, 255--263 (1994; Zbl 0826.11003)] who proved that \[ r(p)=\frac p2 +O (p^{1/2} \log^2p) \tag{1} \] and then generalized (1) to the case when \(p\) is replaced by any odd number \(q\). Next, he defined a D. H. Lehmer number to be any integer \(a\) coprime to \(q\), \(0<a<q\), such that \(a\) and \(\overline a\) have opposite parity, and studies the distribution of the pairs \((a,\overline a)\) with \(a\) a Lehmer number. For the even moments of the distance between \(a\) and \(\overline a\), Zhang obtained an asymptotic formula for: \[ M(q,k)=\sum_{\substack{ 1\leq a\leq q\\ (a,q)=1\\ 2\mid a+\overline a+1}} (a-\overline a)^{2k}. \] Let \(\varphi(q)\) denote the Euler function and \(\tau(q)\) the number of divisors of \(q\). The distribution function of \(a\), \(\overline a\) is defined by: \[ F_q(x,y)=\# \{a:1\leq a\leq xq,\;1\leq\overline a \leq yq, 2\nmid a+\overline a\}, \] for \(0\leq x\), \(y\leq 1\). It was proved by Zhang that \[ F_q(x,y)=\frac 12 xy\varphi(q)+ O(q^{1/2} \tau^2(q) \log^2q). \] In this paper the authors investigate to what extent such results continue to hold true if one replaces the pair \((a,\overline a)\) by a pair of integers \((x_1,x_2)\) satisfying a more general congruence and the partition of \(\mathbb{Z}\) in even and odd numbers is replaced by a more general partition in arithmetic progressions. They start with a prime number \(p\) and an absolutely irreducible algebraic curve \(\mathcal C\) defined over \({\mathbf F}_p=\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z}\) and look at the points on the curve whose coordinates lie in some given arithmetic progressions. They consider the general case of an affine curve in a higher dimensional affine space \(\mathbb{A}^r(\overline {\mathbf F}_p)\), where \(\overline{\mathbf F}_p\) denotes the algebraic closure of \({\mathbf F}_p\). The curve \(\mathcal C\) is not required to be nonsingular, but is assumed to be not contained in any hyperplane. Given such a curve \(\mathcal C\) and \({\mathbf a}=(a_1,\dots, a_r)\), \({\mathbf b}=(b_1,\dots ,b_r)\in \mathbb{Z}^r\), with \(a_1,\dots,a_r\geq 1\), we say that an \({\mathbf x}=(x_1,\dots,x_r) \in\mathbb{Z}^r\), with \(0\leq x_1, \dots,x_r<p\) is a Lehmer point with respect to \(p,r, {\mathcal C}\), \({\mathbf a}\) and \({\mathbf b}\) if \({\mathbf x}\pmod p\in{\mathcal C}\) and \(x_j \equiv b_j \pmod{a_j}\), for \(1\leq j\leq r\). We denote by \({\mathcal L}(p,r,{\mathcal C}, {\mathbf a},{\mathbf b})\) the set of Lehmer points. The authors' goal is to obtain an asymptotic formula for the number of Lehmer points as \(p\) gets large while \(r,{\mathbf a},{\mathbf b}\) and the degree of the curve \(\mathcal C\) remain bounded. They consider the distribution function of Lehmer points. Let \(p,r, {\mathcal C},{\mathbf a}\) and \({\mathbf b}\) be as before. For \({\mathbf t}=(t_1,\dots, t_r)\), \(0\leq t_1,\dots,t_r\leq 1\) let \[ F(p,r,{\mathcal C}, {\mathbf a},{\mathbf b}; {\mathbf t}):=\# \bigl\{{\mathbf x}= (x_1,\dots, x_r)\in{\mathcal L}(p,r,{\mathcal C},{\mathbf a}, {\mathbf b}):x_j\leq t_jp,\;1\leq j\leq r\bigr\}. \] Then they prove the following asymptotic result for \(F(p,r, {\mathcal C},{\mathbf a},{\mathbf b};{\mathbf t})\): Theorem 1. Let \(p\) be a prime number, let \(\mathcal C\) be an irreducible curve of degree \(\leq d\) in \(\mathbb{A}^r(\overline{\mathbf F}_p)\), defined over \({\mathbf F}_p\) and not contained in any hyperplane, let \({\mathbf a},{\mathbf b}\in \mathbb{Z}^r\), \({\mathbf a}=(a_1,\dots,a_r)\), \(a_1,\dots,a_r\geq 1\), and let \({\mathbf t}= (t_1,\dots, t_r)\), \(0\leq t_1,\dots,t_r\leq 1\). Then one has \[ F(p,r,{\mathcal C}, {\mathbf a},{\mathbf b};{\mathbf t})=\frac{t_1\dots t_r}{a_1\dots a_r}p+ O_{r,d} (p^{1/2} \log^rp). \] In particular for \(t_1=\cdots=t_r=1\) they obtain the expected asymptotic result for the number of Lehmer points: Corollary 1. Let \(p\) be a prime number, let \(\mathcal C\) be an irreducible curve of degree \(\leq d\) in \(\mathbb{A}^r(\overline{\mathbf F}_p)\), defined over \({\mathbf F}_p\) and not contained in any hyperplane, and let \({\mathbf a}, {\mathbf b}\in\mathbb{Z}^r\), \({\mathbf a}=(a_1,\dots,a_r)\), \(a_1,\dots,a_r\geq 1\). Then \[ \#{\mathcal L}(p,r,{\mathcal C},{\mathbf a},{\mathbf b})=\frac {p}{a_1\dots a_r} +O_{r,d} (p^{1/2} \log^rp). \]